What small-business owners need to know about the Job Support Scheme

With the government’s Job Retention Scheme expiring at the end of October, small-business owners need to make sure they know how to get the best out of the Job Support Scheme that replaces it.

The Lanes, Brighton
The new measures should help struggling firms keep staff on
(Image credit: © Andrew Hasson/Getty Images)

The good news for small business owners is that the new scheme Job Support Scheme, which comes into force from 1 November, has been made more generous.

The biggest shift is that, while the Job Retention Scheme enabled employers to pay staff for whom they did not have work – furloughed employees – its replacement will, in ordinary circumstances, only support employees working at least some of the time. But importantly, when the Job Support Scheme was announced in September, the government said employees would have to work at least 33% of their usual hours; now this will come down to just 20%, the equivalent of one day a week for a full-time employee. Employers will pay staff as normal for the time they ask them to work, with staff then eligible for two-thirds of their normal wages for hours they are told to stay away.

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David Prosser
Business Columnist

David Prosser is a regular MoneyWeek columnist, writing on small business and entrepreneurship, as well as pensions and other forms of tax-efficient savings and investments. David has been a financial journalist for almost 30 years, specialising initially in personal finance, and then in broader business coverage. He has worked for national newspaper groups including The Financial Times, The Guardian and Observer, Express Newspapers and, most recently, The Independent, where he served for more than three years as business editor.