CJRS: If you’ve claimed too much or not enough
From September 1, the government grant towards the employee wages will be reduced to 70%.
From October 1, the government grant will be reduced again to 60%. During these months’ employers will be asked to contribute towards the cost of their furloughed employees’ wages to ensure they continue to receive at least 80% of their wages for the time they are on furlough.
You cannot claim for:
additional National Insurance or pension contributions you make because you choose to top up your employee’s wages
your employees’ wages for any time they spend working, or any National Insurance or pension contributions you make on these wages
any pension contributions you make that are above the mandatory employer contribution
You can choose to top up your employees’ wages above the minimum furlough pay amount, but you do not have to. Employees must not work or provide any services for the business during hours which they are recorded as being on furlough, even if they receive a top-up wage.
See: Calculate how much you can claim using the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme on Gov.uk
If You've Claimed Too Much Or Not Enough From The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
The Government has updated its guidance if an employer has claimed too much or not enough from the CJRS.
If you have claimed too much
If you want to delete a claim in the online service, you must do this within 72 hours.
If you have made an error in a claim that means you’ve received too much, you must pay this back to HMRC. You can either:
tell HMRC as part of your next online claim (your new claim will be reduced and you’ll need to keep a record of the adjustment for 6 years)
contact HMRC to pay the money back (you should only do this if you’re not submitting another claim)
If you’ve overclaimed a grant and have not repaid it, you must notify HMRC by the latest of either:
90 days after the date you received the grant you were not entitled to
90 days after the date you received the grant that you were no longer entitled to keep because your circumstances changed
20 October 2020
If you do not do this, you may have to pay a penalty. If you do repay any overclaimed grant, this will prevent any potential tax liability in respect of the overpayment of Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. We will not be actively looking for innocent errors in our compliance approach.
If you have not claimed enough
If you made an error in your claim that has resulted in receiving too little money, you will still need to make sure you pay your employees the correct amount. You should contact HMRC to amend your claim and as you are increasing the amount of your claim and they may need to conduct additional checks.
Before 31 July, you must:
make sure to include all eligible employees on claims that you still need to make for periods up to 30 June
make any updates you need to on claims you’ve already made
After 31 July, you will:
no longer be able add an employee to any existing claims for periods up to 30 June, that should have been included on a claim submitted before that date
still be able to make amendments for any other errors that resulted in you not claiming enough
See Guidance on Gov.uk: If you've claimed too much or not enough from the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
For related articles head over to our coronavirus and business page for the latest news, guidance and information.
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