Job Retention Bonus - £1,000 for Employers of furloughed workers

(Postponed as a result of the extension to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme to 30 April 2021)

To encourage job retention as the furlough scheme comes to an end, the Government is offering a Job Retention Bonus to employers of £1,000 for every furloughed worker who remains in continuous employment until 31 January 2021.

At its peak, over 9m employees in the UK were placed on furlough, allowing businesses to safeguard jobs throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.   Although the scheme has been widely used, it comes to an end on 31 October, prompting fears of large-scale redundancies.

The Government hope that the Job Retention Bonus will encourage employers to retain workers, resulting in lower unemployment.

Further details of the bonus scheme are due to be announced in September, but in summary:

• Employers will be able to claim a bonus of £1,000 for every employee who has previously been furloughed and had a Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme claim submitted for them providing they are continuously employed to the end of January 2021.
• To ensure the jobs are meaningful and well-paid, the employee must have been paid an average of at least £520 a month between 1 November 2020 and 31 January 2021.
• Employers must keep up-to-date RTI records until the end of January.
• The employee must not be serving notice before 1 February 2020.

We will provide further details once these are released by Government.  If you have any questions, please get in touch. 

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