Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, for what reason HMRC is unable to accept RTI reports submitted by businesses in November and December 2020 to secure Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme payments for new employees who took up their roles after 30 October 2020 and before the national lockdown was announced on 4 January 2021.

When the Government announced the extension to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), it prioritised helping the greatest number of people as quickly as possible. The scheme has enabled millions of people to remain employed.

The Government chose 30 October because this date is the day before the extension to the CJRS was announced. Extending the cut-off date beyond 30 October would have meant including employments notified to HMRC after the date that the Government announced the extension to the scheme.

Employers can claim for employees on payroll on 30 October 2020 providing the employer made a PAYE RTI submission to HMRC between 20 March 2020 and 30 October 2020, notifying a payment of earnings for that employee. This allows as many people as possible to be included by going right up to the day before the announcement and balances the risk of fraud that existed as soon as the extension to the scheme became public.

Extending the cut-off date beyond 30 October 2020 would significantly increase the risk of abuse because claims could not be confidently verified using the known RTI employment data after this point.