Steps to take before calculating your claim through the Job Support Scheme
Find out what steps you need to take for JSS Open and JSS Closed before you can calculate how much you can claim.
You’ll need to claim separately for each PAYE scheme you run. Each claim should include the employees you are claiming for under both JSS Open and JSS Closed.
Before you can calculate how much you can claim for either of the grants available for the Job Support Scheme (JSS Open and JSS Closed) the steps you need to take are:
- find out what records you need to keep
- work out the length of your claim period
Find out what records you need to keep
For each employee you claim for you must keep a copy for six years of:
- the amount claimed and the claim period
- the number of days claimed for under each type of support
- any calculations you did including those done to work out
- usual hours (JSS Open only)
- reference salary
- the number of actual hours worked (JSS Open only)
- the amount you paid your employee in the claim period
You’ll also need to keep a copy of your claim reference number which you’ll get when you claim.
Work out your claim period for each employee
A claim period cannot start before 1 November 2020. You will be able to submit one claim in each calendar month for all the employees you are claiming for on both JSS Open and JSS Closed. Each claim will be made in arrears to cover some of the cost of wages you’ve already paid to your employees in that claim period for hours not worked.
For each employee, you’ll claim for both JSS Open and JSS Closed together. The amount payable through JSS Open and JSS Closed depends on the number of days the employee is eligible for each type of support. However, each employee can only be claimed for under a single type of support for each day. This applies regardless of how many of your business premises they work at.
An employee does not have to be on a temporary working agreement for the whole claim period but you will not be able to claim for any days not covered by a temporary working agreement.
In each month, your claim period for each employee will be determined by the dates covered by the employee’s pay periods ending in that month that you are claiming for.
The first claim you can submit under the scheme will be for any pay periods that end after 31 October 2020 and on or before 30 November 2020. You will be able to submit this first claim between 8 December 2020 and 22 December 2020, this is the claim window and is the time you have to submit a claim.
The way you determine your claim period for pay periods that include days in April 2021 will be different. Further guidance on this will be issued early next year.
Claim period start date
If you are submitting a claim for pay periods that end after 31 October and on or before 30 November 2020 then an employee’s claim period start date will be the first date from which your employee started on a JSS temporary working agreement (for either JSS Open or JSS Closed). The earliest day this can be is 1 November 2020.
The claim period start date can be one of your employee’s non-working days (like a weekend or bank holiday).
Further guidance will follow on claim period dates for claims in subsequent months.
Claim period end date
Regardless of the calendar month you are claiming for, an employee’s claim period end date will be the end of the last pay period ending in that month.
If your pay period starts in November but ends in December, don’t apportion it. The whole of that pay period will be part of a later claim that you will be able to make in January.
Work out your employee’s JSS Open days
These are the days you’ll use to calculate how much you can claim through JSS Open.
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
When working out your JSS Open days you’ll need to include any [disregarded days]https://www.gov.uk/guidance/extra-steps-to-take-before-calculating-your-claim-through-the-job-support-scheme-open#dis-usual).
Work out your employee’s JSS Closed days
These are the days you’ll use to calculate how much you can claim through JSS Closed.
JSS Closed days are the days in the pay period that your employee is on a JSS closed temporary working agreement and are not:
- on unpaid leave
- on statutory sick pay related leave
- serving a notice period (redundancy or otherwise)
- being claimed for through JSS Open
Check when you can claim
You’ll have 14 days after the claim window opens to submit your claim for the pay periods ending in each month. You can only make one claim for all of the employees you wish to claim for during this month. The claim needs to include all the pay periods that end in the month you are claiming for.
You cannot submit a claim until you have paid your employees and made the PAYE Real Time Information submissions to report the relevant payments.
Each month you will have until the relevant deadline set out in the table below to submit your claim for that month. After this date you will not be able to submit any further claims or add to existing claims. We will update the table with future dates soon.
| Claim for pay periods ending in | When to submit the claim |
|---|---|
| November 2020 | 8 December 2020 to 22 December 2020 |
Find an example to help you work out your claim period.
What to do next
If you’re claiming JSS Open
There are some further steps you need to complete before you can calculate your claim.
If you’re only claiming JSS Closed
You can now calculate how much you can claim from the scheme.
Contacting HMRC
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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.