Check if you can claim the Job Support Scheme Closed if your business is closed
Find out if you’re eligible and how much you can claim for employees who cannot work because your business has been legally required to close and has closed, because of coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions.
If you are experiencing reduced business activity due to coronavirus (COVID-19) and have closed your business premises as a direct result of Health Protection Regulations put in place by the UK government or a devolved administration, then you may be able to claim the Job Support Scheme grant for closed businesses (JSS Closed). You cannot claim if you have voluntarily closed your business premises without being legally required to do so.
In order to be eligible, your employee must have been placed on a JSS Closed temporary working agreement which instructs the employee to stop work for a minimum period of 7 consecutive days. Your employee must agree with this instruction to stop work.
JSS Closed is a grant payment you’ll use to cover 66.67% of your employee’s wages, up to a total grant cap of £2083.44 per month.
You’ll still need to deduct and pay the taxes and employee National Insurance contributions (NICs), and pay employer NICs to HMRC on the full amount paid to the employee, including any grant from the scheme. You must report these via PAYE Real Time Information (RTI) to HMRC on or before the contractual pay date. You must also still pay pension contributions in accordance with the applicable pension scheme terms, unless your employee has opted out or stopped saving into their pension. If applicable Student Loan deductions and the Apprenticeship Levy must also still be paid.
You must have paid the full amount claimed for an employee’s wages for hours not worked to the employee before each claim is made. You do not have to pay the employee any additional amounts above the grant, though you can pay them more if you wish.
Check if you can claim because you are closed
If you’re experiencing reduced business activity due to coronavirus and are eligible to claim the Job Support Scheme, you may be able to claim the JSS Closed grant for closed businesses. You will be able to claim if Health Protection Regulations put in place by the UK government or a devolved administration mean your business premises has been legally required to close and has closed.
You will need to:
- use the postcode checker to check which restrictions are in place in your area (England only)
- find out the relevant restrictions for businesses and Tier 3 restrictions in England
- read the guidance for business restrictions in Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland to understand if your business is required to close under devolved administrations
You’ll only be able to claim for days when the legal restriction is in place and you cannot claim for days after you have been legally allowed to reopen. After you reopen, you may be eligible to claim the grant for open businesses.
You cannot claim if:
- you’ve had to close your business premises because of an incident of coronavirus at your business premises
- you’ve had to close your business premises due to a restriction put in place by an authority other than a UK government or a devolved administration (for example, a local authority)
- you’ve chosen to close your business premises despite not being legally required to do so
- you’ve had to close your business as a result of restricted hours (such as curfews)
You may be eligible to claim the grant for open businesses.
You do not need to have claimed a grant under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme to be eligible for the Job Support Scheme.
If your business premises is subject to other restrictions
You can also claim if your business premises has been required to close and has closed due to Health Protection Regulations put in place by UK government or a devolved administration and is restricted to only operating:
- delivery or collection services
- outdoor services
To be eligible to claim, you must have had to limit your business operations to meet one or more of these restrictions. If your business operations did not have to change to meet these restrictions then you are not eligible to claim.
You will only be able to claim the JSS Closed grant for employees that have stopped working. You may be eligible to claim the JSS Open grant for employees that are working reduced hours.
If your business premises has been partially closed
Where part of your business premises are legally required to close by the regulations, and have been closed, you may be able to claim for employees who usually work in the closed part of the premises. Further details on the eligibility conditions for businesses in this position will be published on 6 November.
If your business premises is open to host blood donation sessions
If your business premises is open only to host blood donation sessions, but has otherwise been been required to close because of UK government Health Protection Regulations, they will be treated as closed for the purposes of JSS Closed. This means you will be able to claim for eligible employees.
Employees you can claim for
You can claim the grant for closed businesses for employees on any type of contract (including zero-hour, temporary and fixed term contracts) who:
- you have agreed a JSS Closed temporary working agreement with, which instructs the employee to stop work for a minimum period of 7 consecutive days
- has agreed with the instruction to stop work
- would have used your closed business premises as their primary workplace
- were employed by you on 23 September 2020
- you made a PAYE Real Time Information (RTI) submission for, notifying payment to HMRC, any time from 6 April 2019 up to 23 September 2020
An individual is an employee for the purposes of this scheme if you treat them as an employee for Income Tax purposes, regardless of how you treat them for National Insurance purposes.
Check an employee’s primary work place
A workplace is a place it is necessary for your employee to attend to perform their employment duties. An employee can have more than one workplace and this can include the employee’s home.
Your business premises are treated as an employee’s primary workplace for your JSS Closed claim if you would have expected your employee to spend at least 60% of their working hours there during the claim period, had the premises not been forced to close.
If your employee works across multiple workplaces for you then they will only be eligible for JSS Closed if enough of their workplaces have been closed so as to prevent them from spending 60% of their combined time at their expected workplaces. The workplaces must been closed by Health Protection Regulations put in place by the UK government or a devolved administration.
For example, an employee who splits their time equally between three workplaces will only be eligible for JSS Closed if two of those workplaces are closed by UK government or devolved administration Health Protection Regulations.
Check how different employment conditions affect eligibility
Find out how different employment conditions affect your employee’s eligibility for the Job Support Scheme Closed.
If you’re claiming for other types of employees
You can claim a grant for other types of employees as long as you pay them via PAYE.
You can claim for:
- office holders (including company directors)
- salaried members of Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs)
- agency workers (including those employed by umbrella companies)
- limb (b) workers
- contingent workers in the public sector
- contractors with public sector engagements in scope of IR35 off-payroll working rules
Employees you cannot claim for
Employees who stopped working for you before 23 September 2020
You cannot claim for employees who were not employed by you on 23 September 2020, because you made them redundant or they stopped working for you. This applies even if you subsequently re-hired them.
Employees who are serving a notice period after 23 September 2020
If an employee is on or begins serving a contractual or statutory notice period after 23 September 2020, you will not be able to claim a grant for any days covered by that notice period.
If the contractual or statutory notice is withdrawn then you will only be able to claim for days that take place after the notice has been withdrawn and for which the other eligibility criteria are met.
If an employee begins serving a contractual or statutory notice period during the first 7 days of a JSS Open or JSS Closed temporary working agreement:
- you cannot claim for any days that occurred before the employee was put on notice
- you will not be able to claim a grant for any days covered by the contractual or statutory notice period
Agreeing a JSS Closed temporary working agreement
To be eligible for the grant for closed businesses, you must have confirmed to your employee in writing (or reached collective agreement with a trade union where the relevant terms are determined by collective agreement) that they have agreed and been put on a JSS Closed temporary working agreement. This agreement must instruct the employee to stop working for a minimum period of 7 consecutive days.
The written agreement must be in place before the temporary working agreement starts. The agreement can be set out in advance of Health Protection Regulations being put in place by the UK government or a devolved administration.
You should discuss with your staff and make any changes to employment contracts by agreement. The employee must agree but does not have to provide a written response and you do not need to place all your employees on a JSS Closed temporary working agreement.
You must:
- make sure that the agreement is consistent with employment, equality and discrimination laws
- maintain records of the terms of the temporary working agreements for each employee
- keep a record of the written agreement for 5 years
- make the agreement available to HMRC on request
Decisions around whether to offer a JSS Open temporary working agreement to someone are down to the individual employer.
HMRC will publish a checklist by 6 November to help employers prepare temporary working agreements, this is not mandatory, and you can draw up your own agreement without this.
Temporary working agreement minimum periods
Any JSS Closed temporary working agreement you put in place must last for minimum period of 7 consecutive days, and:
- employees can be placed on a JSS Closed temporary working agreement multiple times, but each separate instance must be for a minimum period of 7 consecutive days
- if the JSS Closed temporary working agreement does not last 7 consecutive days then you cannot claim for any days that were covered by the agreement
- a JSS Closed temporary working agreement can span two JSS claim periods and the minimum 7 consecutive days do not all need to be in one claim period
These rules apply unless there is a change in Health Protection Regulations which means the premises are no longer legally required to close. If this happens:
- you can end an employee’s JSS Closed temporary working agreement early, even if this means the agreement will last fewer than 7 consecutive days
- you will still be eligible to claim the JSS Closed grant for any eligible days that took place up to the day your premises was legally allowed to open
When your employees are on a JSS Closed temporary working agreement
While your employee is on a JSS Closed temporary working agreement you cannot ask them to do any work for you that:
- makes money for your organisation or any organisation linked or associated with your organisation
- provides services for your organisation or any organisation linked or associated with your organisation
As long as these conditions are met, your employee can:
- take part in training
- volunteer for another employer or organisation
Paying employee and employer taxes and pension contributions
You must still deduct and pay to HMRC the income tax and employee’s National Insurance contributions due from your employees’ pay in the normal way. You must also pay the employer National Insurance contributions due.
This includes pension contributions (both employer contributions and automatic contributions from the employee remain due), unless the employee has opted out or stopped saving into their pension.
Keeping employee rights
Employees still have the same rights at work, including:
- Statutory Sick Pay
- maternity and other parental rights
- rights against unfair dismissal
- redundancy payments
Grants cannot be used to substitute or fund redundancy payments and you cannot claim for days on which the employee was serving a contractual or statutory notice period. HMRC will continue to monitor businesses after the scheme has closed.
Employees working for a different employer
If contractually allowed, your employees are permitted to work for another employer whilst they are on a JSS Closed temporary working agreement.
For any employer that takes on a new employee, the new employer should ensure they complete the starter checklist form correctly. If the employee is subject to a JSS Closed temporary working agreement from another employment, they should complete Statement C.
Holiday pay
Employees on a JSS Closed temporary working agreement continue to accrue leave as per their employment contract.
The employer and employee can agree to vary holiday entitlement as part of the agreement, however almost all workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks of statutory paid annual leave each year which they cannot go below.
Employees can take holiday whilst subject to a JSS Closed temporary working agreement.
Employees should not be placed on a JSS Closed temporary working agreement for a period simply because they are on holiday for that period. Working Time Regulations require holiday pay to be paid at the employee’s normal rate of pay or, where the rate of pay varies, calculated on the basis of the average pay received by the employee in the last 52 working weeks (12 weeks in Northern Ireland). Therefore, if the employee takes holiday, the employer should pay their usual holiday pay in accordance with the Working Time Regulations.
Employers will be obliged to pay employees who are on holiday additional amounts over the grant, though will have the flexibility to restrict when leave can be taken if there is a business need and the correct notice is given.
If an employee usually works bank holidays then the employer can agree that this is included in the grant payment. If the employee usually takes the bank holiday as leave then the employer would either have to top up their usual holiday pay, or give the employee a day of holiday in lieu.
Find out more information on holiday pay.
Before you claim
You cannot use the online claim service until 8 December 2020.
Before you can make a claim, you’ll need to complete some steps before you calculate how much you can claim.
Contacting HMRC
If you think that there have been mistakes or unreasonable delays caused by HMRC, you can use our complaints process.
Get help online
Use HMRC’s digital assistant to find more information about the coronavirus support schemes.
You can also contact HMRC if you cannot get the help you need online.
We are receiving a very high numbers of calls. Please do not contact HMRC unnecessarily, this will help us to manage our essential public services during these challenging times.
Other help and support
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