Delay of Job Retention Bonus

The Job Retention Bonus was meant to provide a £1,000 bonus payment to employers that brought back employees that were furloughed under the CJRS from November 2020 to January 2021. Following the extension of the CJRS, it has been confirmed that the Job Retention Bonus will not be paid in February. The government will instead redeploy a retention incentive at the appropriate time. 

Employee eligibility criteria:
 
-    Must have been eligible to make a claim under the coronavirus job retention scheme (CJRS).

-    Must be continuously employed from the end of the claim period of your last CJRS claim for them, until 31 January 2021.


-    The employee must be paid a minimum of £1,560 gross total during the 3 tax months from 6 November 2020 to 5 February 2021 and must receive payment in each tax month.  The amounts in each tax month can vary so long as in total over the 3 tax months they amount to £1,560.

-    The employee is not serving contractual or statutory notice period on 31 January 2021 (includes notice of retirement).


-    TUPE employees (before 31 October 2020) are eligible so long as the new employer has made a claim under CJRS for them.

-    Office holders are eligible for the bonus so long as a claim under CJRS was made.

Employer eligibility criteria:
 
-    The employer must file their RTI submissions to HMRC on time.

-    The employer must have made a claim for the CJRS grant for the employee.

-    The employer can not claim the bonus for any employees where they repaid all of the grant, for any reason.
 
The bonus is a one off taxable payment to the employer, so will be included as income when calculating taxable profits for corporation and income tax.