Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to ensure that company directors who receive part of their income through an salary paid annually are eligible for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.

For an employee, including company directors, to be eligible for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, they must have been notified to HMRC on a real-time information (RTI) submission on or before 19 March.

Those paid annually are eligible to claim, as long as they meet the relevant conditions, including being notified to HMRC on an RTI submission on or before 19 March 2020 which relates to a payment of earnings in the 2019/20 tax year.

The 19 March cut-off date allows as many people as possible to be included by going right up to the day before the announcement, while mitigating the risk of fraud.