Extra steps to take before calculating your claim through the Job Support Scheme Open
Find out what extra steps you need to take before you calculate how much you can claim through JSS Open.
If you’re using the JSS Open to claim for some of the cost of your employees’ hours not worked, after you’ve completed the steps to take before you calculate your claim, you’ll need to work out how much you can claim from the scheme.
To do this you’ll need to complete the following steps:
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work out the employee’s usual hours worked
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record the actual hours worked
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work out the percentage of time worked
You will need to do several calculations to work out how much to pay your employee during JSS, and how much you can claim.
You should round each step of your calculations to two decimal places. This is normal rounding; values of five or greater should be rounded up, and four or less should be rounded down.
At the end of each calculation, we will tell you if you need to round the result to the nearest whole number. Otherwise, use the value you calculated to two decimal places.
Work out your employee’s usual hours
You’ll need to work out your employee’s usual hours for the days they were eligible for, known as JSS Open days. You need to work this out for each pay period within the claim period.
The JSS Open days are the days in the pay period that your employee is on a JSS Open temporary working agreement and they are not:
The JSS Open days are the days in the pay period that your employee is on a JSS Open temporary working agreement and they are not:
- on unpaid leave
- on statutory sick pay related leave
- serving a notice period (redundancy or otherwise)
- being claimed for through JSS Closed
You need the number of usual hours to work out how much you’ll need to pay the employee for the hours not worked, and how much you can claim. You’ll also use the usual hours to check the employee’s working time percentage is at least 20% of their usual hours across all their JSS Open days in the claim period.
Your employee’s usual hours are not always the number of hours that your employee is contracted or rota’d to work in the claim period, or the number of hours you would have expected them to work.
There are two ways you should work out your employee’s usual hours depending on whether they work fixed hours or variable hours.
You should use the calculation for employees with variable hours if your employee is either:
- not contracted to a fixed number of hours
- paid depending on the number of hours they work (including overtime for which the pay is not discretionary)
If they’re not on variable hours then use the calculation for employees with fixed hours.
HMRC will not decline or seek repayment of any grant based solely on the particular choice between fixed or variable approach to calculating usual hours, as long as a reasonable choice is made.
Employees with fixed hours
If your employee doesn’t work variable hours, their usual hours are the higher of:
- the number of contracted hours at the end of the last pay period ending on or before 19 March 2020 (which may be the same number of usual hours you calculated for the Job Retention Scheme)
- the number of contracted hours at the end of the last pay period ending on or before 23 September 2020
You should use this number for all your JSS Open claims for this employee even if they are expecting to work more hours in the future.
To calculate the number of usual hours for the JSS Open days in each pay period:
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Identify the hours and repeating working pattern your employee was contracted for the end of the last pay period ending on or before 19 March 2020 and 23 March 2020
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If the working pattern has remained the same length, use the higher number of contracted hours (if any) as at 19 March and 23 September 2020 for step 3 below. If it has changed you will need to complete steps 3 for both pay periods and use the higher result for steps 4 and 5.
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Divide the number of contracted hours by the number of calendar days in he repeating working pattern, including non-working days.
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Multiply by the number of JSS Open days in the pay period you are calculating for.
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Round up or down to the nearest whole number of the result isn’t already a whole number.
You need to calculate the usual hours differentlyif an employee with a fixed number of hours has permanently reduced their hours.
Example of a repeating working pattern
Amber and Abby work for A Ltd. They are both paid monthly, but they have different working patterns.
Amber and Abby both start JSS Open temporary working agreements on 1 November 2020. A Ltd is calculating its claim for 1 November 2020 to 30 November 2020.
Amber is contracted to work 40 hours a week. Amber’s repeating working pattern is a week, so there are 7 days in her repeating working pattern.
40 hours ÷ 7 days in repeating working pattern = 6.71 hours
6.71 hours × 30 JSS Open days = 171.30 hours
After rounding the result to the nearest whole number, Amber has 171 usual hours for the pay period 1 November 2020 to 30 November 2020.
Abby is contracted to work a “5 on, 5 off” pattern in which she works 5 consecutive 12-hour shifts and then has 5 days off before the pattern repeats. There are 10 days in Abby’s repeating working pattern.
60 hours ÷ 10 days in repeating working pattern = 6 hours
6 hours × 30 JSS Open days = 180 hours
Abby has 180 usual hours for the pay period 1 November 2020 to 30 November 2020.
Employees with fixed hours who have permanently reduced their working hours
If your employee doesn’t work variable hours and:
- their number of contracted hours is lower in the pay period ending on or before 23 September than in the pay period ending on or before 19 March
- due to a permanent, written contractual variation unconnected to CJRS or JSS
Their usual hours are the number of contracted hours at the end of the last pay period ending on or before 23 September 2020.
To calculate the number of usual hours for the JSS Open days in each pay period:
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Identify the hours and repeating working pattern your employee was contracted for at the end of the last pay period ending on or before 23 September 2020
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Divide the number of contracted hours by the number of calendar days in the repeating working pattern, including non-working days.
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Multiply by the number of JSS Open days in the pay period you are calculating for.
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Round up or down to the nearest whole number if the result isn’t already a whole number.
If the employee has fixed pay then their reference salary may also be affected.
Employees with variable hours
If your employees’ pay varies by the amount of time worked, you will have shown the number of hours worked on your employees’ payslips in line with legislation introduced by BEIS in April 2019 (Employment Rights Act 1996, section 8). You should therefore have a record of the number of hours they worked.
In any event, you should identify the hours the employee worked in the relevant period using pay records, time sheets and other records which show time worked. If these aren’t available then use other records, such as rotas or work diaries. If these records are not available, you may use the pay rate to work back from gross pay – divide the amount of pay by the (hourly) pay rate to estimate the number of hours worked in the pay period.
If your employee has variable hours, or their pay varies depending on the number of hours they work (or both), their usual hours are the higher of:
- the number of hours they worked on the same calendar days in the 2019 to 2020 tax year
- the average number of hours they worked in the 2019 to 2020 tax year
- the average number of hours they worked from 1 February 2020 (or the day their employment began, if later) until 23 September 2020
When you calculate the usual hours, you should include:
- any hours of leave for which the employee was paid their full contracted rate (such as annual leave)
- any hours worked as ‘overtime’, but only if the pay for those hours was not discretionary
If the employee took certain types of leave, the average number of hours should be based on the period where the employee was not on leave. This means you should not count any calendar days where the employee was on a period of:
- statutory sick pay related leave
- family related statutory leave
- reduced rate paid leave following a period of statutory sick pay related leave
- reduced rate paid leave following a period of family related statutory leave
If you are calculating the usual hours for an employee who is part of a flexible work time arrangement (‘flexi-leave’), you should:
- not count as hours worked any hours that the employee worked but were not paid for because they accrued paid time off, which they could take later
- count as hours worked any hours that the employee took as paid time off (‘flexi-leave’), which they had accrued by working additional hours at some other time
You must calculate the usual hours in this way for each pay period you are claiming for this employee.
Work out the usual hours for a pay period based on the same calendar days in the tax year 2019 to 2020
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Identify the pay periods in the 2019 to 2020 tax year that correspond to at least one JSS Open day in the pay period you are calculating for.
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If there is only one pay period identified, and if all its days correspond to JSS Open days in the pay period you are calculating for – use the number of hours the employee actually worked in the identified pay period.
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If not – you’ll need to add together the hours worked in each of the pay periods you’ve identified, in proportion to the number of corresponding days in each pay period.
Work out the usual hours based on the hours your employee worked on the same calendar days in the tax year 2019 to 2020, if it includes days from more than one pay period
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Start with the number of hours worked in the first pay period identified in the tax year 2019 to 2020.
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Divide by the number of calendar days in that pay period.
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Multiply by the number of calendar days in that pay period which correspond to a JSS Open day.
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Repeat steps 1, 2 and 3 for each subsequent identified corresponding pay period in the tax year 2019 to 2020.
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Add them all together.
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Round up or down to the nearest whole number if the result is not already a whole number.
Work out the usual hours based on the average number of hours worked in the tax year 2019 to 2020
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Start with the number of hours that the employee actually worked for you in the tax year 2019 to 2020.
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Divide it by the number of calendar days the employee was employed by you in the tax year 2019 to 2020 – including non-working days.
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Multiply by the number of JSS Open days in the pay period you are calculating for.
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Round up or down to the nearest whole number if the result is not already a whole number.
If the employee took certain types of leave in the 2019 to 2020 tax year, the average number of hours should be based on the period where the employee was not on leave. This means you should not count any working hours or calendar days where the employee was on a period of:
- statutory sick pay related leave
- family related statutory leave
- reduced rate paid leave following a period of statutory sick pay related leave
- reduced rate paid leave following a period of family related statutory leave
Work out the usual hours based on the average hours worked from 1 February 2020 to 23 September 2020
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Start with the number of hours that the employee actually worked for you between 1 February 2020 and 23 September 2020.
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Divide it by the number of calendar days the employee was employed by you in the period including non-working days.
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Multiply by the number of JSS Open days in the pay period you are calculating for.
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Round up or down to the nearest whole number if the result is not already a whole number.
If the employee took certain types of leave between 1 February 2020 and 23 September 2020, the average wage should be based on the period where the employee was not on leave. This means you should not count any working hours or calendar days where the employee was on a period of:
- statutory sick pay related leave
- family related statutory leave
- reduced rate paid leave following a period of statutory sick pay related leave
- reduced rate paid leave following a period of family related statutory leave
Work out your employee’s usual hours if they are paid per task or piece of work done
You should work out the usual hours for these employees in the same way as for other employees who work variable hours, if possible.
If you do not know what hours the employee worked, you can estimate the hours based on the number of ‘pieces’ they produced and the average rate of work per hour (which you should already have worked out to comply with National Minimum Wage rules).
Work out your employee’s hours not worked
You will have agreed how many hours your employee on JSS Open temporary working agreement is going to work.
You can claim for the employee’s hours not worked on their JSS Open days. To calculate how many hours you can claim for (hours not worked):
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Start with your employee’s usual hours for the JSS Open days.
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Subtract the number of hours they actually worked on the JSS Open days – even if this is different to what you agreed in the JSS Open temporary working agreement. Include any hours of paid annual leave taken during working time. Don’t round the result.
The JSS Open days are the days in the pay period that your employee is on a JSS Open temporary working agreement and they are not:
- on unpaid leave
- on statutory sick pay related leave
- serving a notice period (redundancy or otherwise)
- being claimed for through JSS Closed
You must pay the employee their contractually agreed rate for any hours they work. Check the latest National Minimum Wage rates.
Find an example of calculating the number of hours not worked.
If your employee takes leave during the Job Support Scheme
Annual leave
Employees on a JSS Closed temporary working agreement can take holiday while the business is closed.
Employees on a JSS Open temporary working agreement can take holiday during either their working hours or the hours not worked:
- holiday taken during working hours counts as working time, these hours are included when calculating the working time percentage, but a JSS Open grant cannot be claimed
- holiday taken during the hours not worked does not count as working time, a JSS Open grant can be claimed for these hours
Where employees take annual leave, the employer should pay their usual holiday pay in accordance with the Working Time Regulations.
Other types of leave
You can claim for an employee who is on:
- family related statutory leave
- reduced rate paid leave following a period of family related statutory leave
- leave taken on account of time worked under a flexible work time arrangement (‘flexi-leave’)
Days of these types of leave can count as JSS Open days or JSS Closed days, provided the appropriate temporary working agreement is in place and the other conditions are met.
Work out your employee’s working time percentage
You can only claim for employees through JSS Open if they work at least 20% of their usual hours across all the JSS Open days in the claim period.
You can choose to disregard some days to ensure that that your employee meets the 20% worked hours requirement.
The working time percentage may fall below 20% in some of the pay periods within your claim, but must be at least 20% overall.
To check that the employee’s working time percentage is at least 20% you must first calculate their usual hours for each pay period:
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Add together the hours the employee actually worked on each JSS Open day in the claim period (including any hours of paid annual leave taken during working time).
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Add together the employee’s usual hours you calculated for the JSS Open days in each pay period in the claim period.
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Divide the result of step 1 by the result of step 2.
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Without rounding the result must be at least 20%.
You should not calculate the usual hours for the whole claim period at once, because the result may be different than the total of the usual hours calculated separately for each period.
If your employee has not worked enough hours across the JSS Open days to be eligible
If the working time percentage across all of your employee’s JSS Open days in the claim period is less than 20%, which means your claim would otherwise be invalid, you can choose which days to include in your claim and calculations.
You can disregard some of the JSS Open days when you calculate the:
- usual hours
- working time percentage
- JSS Open grant amount
This will make it easier to achieve at least 20% working time across the remaining days.
Each remaining day must be part of a ‘block’ of at least seven consecutive JSS Open days or JSS Closed days.
Disregarded days are not included in your calculations. You will treat them as if they are not JSS Open days. Your choice must be consistent - any day that you disregard must not be included in any of your calculations for that claim period.
Your claim period is unaffected, and still includes all pay periods ending in the relevant month (including the disregarded days).
You should keep a record of any days you disregard for each claim period, and any calculations you use to prepare your JSS Open claim.