What to do if you've claimed too much or not enough from the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme

The Government has updated its guidance if an employer has claimed too much or not enough from the CJRS. 

If you have claimed too much

If you want to delete a claim in the online service, you must do this within 72 hours.

If you have made an error in a claim that means you’ve received too much, you must pay this back to HMRC. You can either:

• tell HMRC as part of your next online claim (your new claim will be reduced and you’ll need to keep a record of the adjustment for 6 years)

• contact HMRC to pay the money back (you should only do this if you’re not submitting another claim)

If you’ve overclaimed a grant and have not repaid it, you must notify HMRC by the latest of either:

• 90 days after the date you received the grant you were not entitled to

• 90 days after the date you received the grant that you were no longer entitled to keep because your circumstances changed

• 20 October 2020

If you do not do this, you may have to pay a penalty. If you do repay any overclaimed grant, this will prevent any potential tax liability in respect of the overpayment of Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. HMRC have advised they will not be actively looking for innocent errors in their compliance approach.

If you have not claimed enough

If you made an error in your claim that has resulted in receiving too little money, you will still need to make sure you pay your employees the correct amount. You should contact HMRC to amend your claim and as you are increasing the amount of your claim and they may need to conduct additional checks.

See: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/if-youve-claimed-too-much-or-not-enough-from-the-coronavirus-job-retention-scheme