Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and The National Lottery Community Fund’s grant holders

The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme has been extended until 31 March 2021.

We’ll continue to support grant holders as we move through the pandemic.

Topping up furloughed hours

National Lottery money cannot be used to top up furloughed hours.

Staff returning from furlough

If you have staff members who were removed from furlough and come back to work full time, you may be able to use National Lottery money if the staff member was the original staff member funded under the original grant. If they are not, you'll need to discuss this with your funding officer, as this would be a variation to the grant and would depend on how much available grant there was left.

NI and pension contribution

You can continue to use your grant funding for contributions as long as those contributions are associated with hours worked and not the furloughed hours.

Salaried money all spent

If you've spent all your salaried money, contact your funding officer to assess your next steps.

Eligibility to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme

The National Lottery Community Fund’s grant holders are charities, community organisations and social enterprises which receive public funding to deliver policy outcomes, which are set out by each grant holder in their application. The government has confirmed that The National Lottery Community Fund’s grant holders are eligible for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) so long as:

they are not primarily funded by the government, and their staff cannot be redeployed to assist with the coronavirus response
they do not already receive public funding that is explicitly designed to cover the staff costs for which they are now claiming*, and

the combined total of their grants and Job Retention Scheme payments should not represent more than 100% of the level of total income they would have expected to receive for salaries and associated salary costs during this period in a non-COVID scenario (for the avoidance of doubt, this includes earned and contributed income).

The National Lottery Community Fund will allow grant holders to vary their grants which had been allocated to paying for staff who are eligible for the CJRS, in order to enable them to allocate funding to other essential activities in order to support communities and ensure continued liquidity.

We will ask all organisations who have applied to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and who are existing grant holders, to confirm that:

they are not primarily funded by the government, and the staff being considered for the CJRS cannot be redeployed to assist with the coronavirus response, and
they are not using this and government funds to double fund the salaries of furloughed employees, and

that the payments they receive as a result of the Job Retention Scheme do not combine with their existing and anticipated public funding to mean that they are now receiving total public funding that exceeds their anticipated level of income to cover salaries and associated salary costs for this period
written confirmation will be added as a condition for their next grant payment.

The National Lottery Community Fund encourages all charities, community organisations and social enterprises, whether or not they are grant holders, to consider whether an application to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme would be a way to mitigate some of the challenges posed by the current situation. Organisations should refer to the government’s published guidance https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-for-wage-costs-through-the-coronavirus-job-retention-scheme.

*We cannot advise organisations on eligibility for the government’s scheme. We provide project funding for organisations which would normally include a proportion of salary costs.

Last updated: 19 November 2020