Labour supply companies should pass on the payouts to your clients from 1 April 2020 onwards.
This is in line with the Resilience Budget, which was announced on 26 March 2020, when the Government first enhanced the JSS, to provide more support for companies to manage the economic impact of COVID-19.
No, you do not need to.
Labour suppliers only need to pass on the JSS payouts to clients who continue to pay full fees for the employees’ contracted services.
If your client reduces your employee’s wages, for example, by negotiating a reduced salary fee in the contract, you may reduce the amount of JSS benefits that is passed on to your client accordingly.
However, you should use the remaining JSS benefits to top up your employees’ wages to the prevailing amount.
You may wish to pass on the JSS benefits on a monthly basis, in line with the payment schedule. If the client decide to terminate the contract, the labour supplier would be able to retain the balance JSS benefits, and use it to pass on to your new client that your employee will work for, or offset the employees’ wages directly if your employee is not working for any client at the moment.
If your employee is contracted to work for your client from 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021, you should pass on all 10 months’ worth of JSS payouts to the client, for example by offsetting the salary fees due in April 2020 to January 2021.
In particular, the enhanced JSS payouts (i.e. the payouts computed based on 75% of October’s and November’s wages, and disbursed in April and May respectively) should be passed on to your clients in April and May. This is to provide your clients with the wage support to tide over the Circuit Breaker period.
In the July and October 2020 payouts, the Government will adjust for the differences between October 2019 and actual April 2020, and November 2019 and actual May 2020 wages. Labour suppliers should discuss with your clients and mutually agree on how to allocate the differences.
If your employee was working for Client A from 1 April to 30 June 2020, you should pass on 3 months’ worth of JSS payouts to Client A. You should pass on the remaining JSS payouts to the clients that your employee works for subsequently.
You should discuss with your client on whether or not to pass on the JSS payouts.
If your client does not require the JSS payouts, you should return the JSS payouts for this client.
Find out how to return JSS payouts.