The Government has published further details on the Job Retention Bonus which will be of interest to any employer who has furloughed employees and has brought/is going to bring back those employees to work. The new guidance includes details of the eligibility requirements and how employers can claim.

The key points to note are:

• The Job Retention Bonus is a one-off payment of £1,000  from the Government to an employer for each employee that the employer has furloughed at some stage under the furlough scheme and kept continuously employed until 31 January 2021.
• The Employer can keep the bonus payment and does not need to pay this to the employee.
• Employers have to claim the payment  from HMRC with claims being made between 15 February 2021 and 31 March 2021.
• To be eligible, employees must not be serving a contractual or statutory notice on 31 January 2021.
• Employees also need to have been paid the minimum income threshold (a total of £1,560 gross) throughout the tax months 6 November 2020 to 5 December 2020, 6 December 2020 to 5 January 2021 and 6 January to 5 February 2021.

Whether or not this payment is something that will prevent employers making redundancies once the furlough scheme ends is still to be seen. For some employers the cost of employing someone through to the end of furlough and then for November through to January will likely outweigh the benefit of the bonus payment. However, for those employers that have furloughed staff and will continue to employ them when the furlough scheme ends on 31 October 2020, it does represent the opportunity to recover a bonus payment of £1,0000 per furloughed employee.  Employers who fall in that category should make sure that they diarise the claim period and put their claims in to receive the bonus payment.

If you need any further information on the Job Retention Bonus, please contact Moorcrofts Employment Partner, Matt Jenkin.