Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will (a) change the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme 19 March cut-off date eligibility criterion from RTI submission date to contract start date and (b) set up an HMRC task force to examine evidence of contract start date on a case-by-case basis to prevent fraud.

The Government has prioritised helping the greatest number of people as quickly as possible, and the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) will enable millions of people to remain employed.

The Government set up the CJRS to operate at significant scale and with limited manual intervention. Processing claims for the CJRS in cases where HMRC did not have RTI data would require much greater manual handling by HMRC, which would significantly slow down the system. Extending the cut-off date beyond 20 March would significantly increase the risk of abuse because HMRC could not verify claims using data after this point.

The 19 March deadline date allows as many people as possible to be included by going right up to the day before the announcement, while addressing the risk of fraud that existed as soon as the scheme became public.