Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, for what reasons he has not amended the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme to compensate furloughed workers for tronc payments through formal PAYE payrolls for which HMRC has RTI data; and if he will make a statement.

The objective of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJR) is to help employers whose operations have been severely affected by coronavirus (COVID-19) to retain their employees and protect the UK economy. To achieve this, the grants compensate employers for the payments that they are obliged to make in order to avoid the need for redundancies. Covering discretionary payments would go beyond the objectives of the scheme.

Therefore, where tronc payments are non-discretionary, they are included when calculating payments for the purpose of the CJRS. Where tronc payments are made at the discretion of the employer or a client, they cannot be included when calculating payments for the purpose of the CJRS.