HMRC has updated the guidance on CJRS payments to say that if a business has overclaimed for one employee, they can offset this by an amount, equal to any amounts that they’ve underclaimed for another employee included in the same claim period.

For example,if a business claimed £4,000 for 1 June 2021 to 30 June 2021 (comprising £2,000 for Employee 1 and £2,000 for Employee 2) and then reviewed the claim after the amendment deadline and realised that Employee 1 should have received £2,500 and Employee 2 should have received £1,500, the £500 overclaim for Employee 1 can be offset against the £500 underclaim for Employee 2. This means the business does not have an overclaim for the period from 1 June 2021 to 30 June 2021 as long as they pay Employee 1 the additional £500 they should have received in respect of that period.

However, businesses need to be aware that they cannot offset an overclaim made in one claim period against an underclaim from another claim period and that they must repay any balancing overclaim to HMRC after undertaking offsets for any period.