Certain sectors see access to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme restricted

Some sectors that receive payments from the Government as well as from private sources have seen their access to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) restricted.

The CJRS allows employers to retain employees on the PAYE Payroll who are not carrying out work for them by placing them on furlough and to claim a grant of 80 per cent of a furloughed employee’s usual pay up to a limit of £2,500 a month.

Employers can also claim for employer National Insurance Contributions (NICS) and minimum employer auto-enrolment pension contributions.

Furloughed workers must not carry out any work for their employers or for connected organisations.

However, the Department for Education (DfE) has now issued guidance to education providers, including private day nurseries, informing them that they should take into account any public funding they are still receiving when working out how much to claim from the CJRS.

The guidance states that private nurseries can only apply to the scheme where it meets a number of specific conditions, including that “the grant from the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme would not duplicate other public grants received, and would not lead to financial reserves being created.”

It adds: “…an early years provider can access the CJRS to cover up to the proportion of its paybill which could be considered to have been paid for from that provider’s private income. This would typically be income received from ‘parent-paid’ hours, and excludes all income from the government’s free entitlements (or ‘DSG income’) for all age groups.”

Meanwhile, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), has been told by the Treasury that organisations in the heritage sector that receive public funding and which access the CJRS should not top-up the salaries of furloughed employees.