The Government has updated its coronvarius job retention scheme (CJRS) guidance for February 1 to April 30.

What Remains Unchanged?

Employers can still claim for 80 per cent of an eligible employee's salary, capped at £2,500 per month in respect of hours not worked.

HMRC will continue to publish information on all employers claiming under the CJRS unless the employer requests otherwise.

Employers still cannot claim under the CJRS for an employee who is working their notice period.

The main change relates to calculating the reference salary and usual working hours for employees who have a variable salary/variable hours.

Reference Salary

To calculate furlough pay in March and April 2021 for employees who do not have a fixed rate, the corresponding month should refer to the employee's pay in March and April 2019 (not March and April 2020), as employees may have been furloughed in the corresponding month in 2020. However, when calculating that employee's furlough pay for January and February 2021, the corresponding calendar month in 2020 should be used.

Reference Period for Usual Working Hours

For employees who have variable hours, for the 'calendar lookback' method, the following updates are applicable:

The Treasury Direction removes reference to salary periods and calendar days occurring in the 2019-2020 tax year, which has been amended to "the relevant reference month calendar days" and "the relevant reference month salary periods". The relevant reference month is March 2019 for a March 2021 claim, and April 2019 for an April 2021 claim.

Where a non-fixed rate employee was not employed in March or April 2019, only the averaging method of calculating usual working hours can be used.

The above changes have been incorporated into the Government's guidance which can be found here. The guidance contains some practical examples of how the reference periods operate.