BREAKING: If your business is legally required to shut down for a local lockdown, you will be entitled to grants to pay employees wages up to 67%, up to a maximum of £2,100 per month.
How will the new scheme work?
The expanded support will still come under the recently-announced Job Support Scheme (JSS) which was introduced as a replacement for the furlough measures, which end on 31 October.
The JSS allows businesses to reduce their employees’ hours, without cutting their pay to the same level. If employees work a minimum of
33 per cent of their contracted hours, the Government will then pay a third of the remaining hours not worked, with the business paying another third.
And the Government has already announced the £1,000 Job Retention Bonus (JRB) which pays companies a bonus to keep furloughed staff on payroll.
But under the expanded measures, companies whose premises are legally required to shut for some period over winter as part of local or national restrictions will also be given grants to pay the wages of staff who cannot work.
The Government will pay two thirds of each employees’ salary (67 per cent), up to a maximum of £2,100 a month.