Job Retention Bonus
Posted 06/10/2020
The Job Retention Bonus is a £1,000 one-off taxable payment to the employer for each eligible employee that have been furloughed and kept continuously employed until 31 January 2021.
You will be able to claim the bonus between 15 February 2021 and 31 March 2021. You do not have to pay this money to your employee.
Who Can Claim?
You can claim the bonus if you’re an employer who has furloughed employees and made an eligible claim for them through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.
Your employee must have been eligible for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme grant for you to be eligible for the bonus.
You can still claim the bonus if you make a claim for that employee through the Job Support Scheme.
Employees You Can Claim For
You can claim for employees that:
- you made an eligible claim for under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
- you kept continuously employed from the end of the claim period of your last Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme claim for them, until 31 January 2021
- are not serving a contractual or statutory notice period for you on 31 January 2021 (this includes people serving notice of retirement)
- you paid an amount in each relevant tax month and enough to meet the Job Retention Bonus minimum income threshold.
Claiming for an individual who’s not an employee
You can claim the Job Retention Bonus for individuals who are not employees, such as office holders or agency workers, as long as you all other eligibility criteria to claim the bonus is met.
The minimum income threshold
To be eligible for the bonus you must make sure that your employees have been paid at least the minimum income threshold.
To meet the minimum income threshold you must pay your employee a total of at least £1,560 (gross) throughout the tax months:
- 6 November to 5 December 2020
- 6 December 2020 to 5 January 2021
- 6 January to 5 February 2021
You must pay your employee at least one payment of taxable earnings (of any amount) in each of the relevant tax months.
The minimum income threshold criteria apply regardless of:
- how often you pay your employees
- any circumstances that may have reduced your employee’s pay in the relevant tax periods, such as being on statutory leave or unpaid leave
HMRC will check that employees have been paid at least the minimum income threshold by checking information you’ve submitted through Full Payment Submissions via Real Time Information (RTI).
What payments are included in the minimum income threshold
Only payment recorded as taxable pay and submitted to HMRC will count towards the minimum income threshold.
How Can You Claim
You cannot claim the bonus until 15 February 2021.
Before you can claim the bonus, you will need to have reported all payments made to your employee between 6 November 2020 and 5 February 2021 to HMRC through Full Payment Submissions via Real Time Information (RTI).
For Government Guidance, please see https://www.gov.uk/guidance/check-if-you-can-claim-the-job-retention-bonus-from-15-february-2021
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