Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, for what reasons the submission of contracts as evidence of employment are not permitted to allow new starters to access the Coronavirus Jobs Retention Scheme.

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. To be eligible for the CJRS, employees must have been on their employer’s PAYE payroll on or before 19 March 2020 and HMRC must have received an RTI submission notifying payment in respect of that employee on or before 19 March 2020. The eligibility requirements aim to ensure that as many people as possible are included in the scheme, while allowing HMRC to verify claims using data they hold, mitigating the risk of fraudulent use of the scheme.