Today (24th September), the UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak has announced plans to introduce a new ‘Job Support Scheme’ to nurture viable jobs and assist those employees in work, with a government top-up for those on shorter working hours.

A key point of the statement brought attention to employers that “hold people in jobs that only exist in the furlough” and stated that this is “fundamentality wrong”.

Three Principles of New Scheme

1. Supporting viable jobs; employees must work at least 1/3 of their normal hours and be paid for those hours as normal. The government and employers will then each cover 1/3 of the remaining pay. This means an employee will receive 77% of their pay when working 33% of their hours, according to the Treasury.

2. Targeting support SME’s only; larger businesses will only be included if they have seen their turnover fall through the crisis (details to be released)

3. Open to all employers; meaning everyone can claim and includes those that have not used similar schemes previously.

Its aim is to directly support the wages of people in work and help businesses keep employees in viable jobs.

The Job Support Scheme will run for 6 months and start from November 2020.

Job Retention Bonuses can still be claimed for those utilising this new scheme.

Self Employed Workers

Whilst there were no signs of a scheme being introduced for limited company directors, petitioned by groups including #ForgottenLtd and many trade bodies across the UK.

However, those truly self-employed will see an extension to existing grants on similar terms and conditions.

More Details to Follow

As expected, the Government will be releasing full details on the scheme in due course.

The Treasury has already confirmed how part of the scheme will work and we will be updating this article as details are released.

From 1 November, for the next six months, the Job Support Scheme will protect viable jobs in businesses who are facing lower demand over the winter months due to Covid-19. pic.twitter.com/8NpIKpQV8y

— HM Treasury (@hmtreasury) September 24, 2020