Back to Work Employment Incentive – Guidelines
Introduction
The Employment Incentive is designed to encourage employers to recruit eligible jobseekers into sustainable permanent jobs.
Under the incentive, employers can claim minimum wage plus the employer’s 6.5% Social Security contributions for 35 hours per week for the first 6 months of employment) when they employ an eligible jobseeker on a permanent contract of 35 hours per week.
Back to Work also provides in-work support for both the employer and employee for the duration of the incentive.
The aims of the Employment Incentive
Key aims of the Employment Incentive are to:
- encourage employers to recruit entitled or entitled to work jobseekers into full time sustainable permanent employment
- reduce the number of entitled or entitled to work people who are registered as unemployed for six months or more
- provide employers with the financial support to recruit and train people who have been long-term unemployed
Qualifying employers
The Employment Incentive is open to any employer operating in Jersey and who is registered under the Control of Housing and Work Law. This includes commercial businesses, States-owned utility companies, charities, foundations, not-for-profit organisations and the States of Jersey. There is no limit to the number of people an employer can recruit supported by the Employment Incentive.
Qualifying candidates
Candidates must be entitled or entitled to work, and must be one of the following:
- Registered with Back to Work as Actively Seeking Work (ASW) for at least six months continuously.
- An active client of the Jersey Employment Trust who meets the above criteria
- During the eligibility period, candidates must not have worked for (any amount of hours) longer than 14 days
- In receipt of Income Support
Excluded candidates
- Any person who is not classified as either Entitled or Entitled to Work
- Any individual who has not been registered as actively seeking work for 6 months (or who has worked for more than 14 days, irrelevant of the amount of hours)
- Non-EU nationals whose visa does not allow them recourse to public funds
- Any candidate deemed unsuitable for the Employment Incentive by Back to Work
Qualifying contracts of work
Contracts of work must be:
- Permanent contracts of at least 35 hours paid employment per week. Employers are able to employ an eligible candidate for up to 4 weeks on a trial/temporary basis (which will be reimbursed by Back to Work) before committing to a permanent contract
- Permanent contracts of fewer than 35 hours will be considered on a case by case basis only where this is appropriate for the individual jobseeker concerned (e.g. parent with young children; 25 hours). In this case incentive funding will be paid on a pro rata basis using hours worked
- Permanent contracts paid at the trainee wage will be supported by a reduced Employment Incentive in line with the trainee wage
- Employers may fund pay rates higher than minimum wage and/or more than 35 hours per week at their own cost
Excluded contracts of work
- Fixed term contracts
- Zero hour contracts
- Temporary contracts (except for up to first four weeks of employment)
- Any job paid with an offset for accommodation and/or food
- Sub-contracted work from a self-employed contractor
- Any role which is already subject to grant aid or subsidy from another States of Jersey department or associated body
How the Employment Incentive works
- Employer contacts Back to Work with their vacancy (call 01534 444444 or backtowork@gov.je).
- The Back to Work team provide details of jobseekers who are best matched to the vacancy.
- Employer shortlists, interviews, and then issues a permanent contract to the candidate(s) they wish to recruit.
- Employer submits to Back to Work an Employment Incentive application form (which includes hours, rate and first date of pay) and a copy of the signed and dated employment contract.
- Back to Work team confirm Employment Incentive has been allocated to employer.
- Back to Work maintains contact (at least once a month) with both the employer and employee, providing support as required during the first six months.
- Employer submits payslip(s) monthly in arrears for each month of the incentive period.
- Payment made directly to employer by Back to Work within two working weeks of submission.
Claiming payments
Once an Employment Incentive application has been approved by Back to Work, employers should claim monthly in arrears, once a month during the incentive period.
- The employer needs to submit payslips that confirm the individual recruited has been paid in accordance with their contract after each month of employment. Payments will be made, once a month and within two working weeks by BACS directly to the company or organisation’s bank account
- All claims have to be submitted to Back to Work within one month of the supported employee completing the incentive period
- It is the responsibility of the employer to ensure that employees recruited with the support of the Employment Incentive are aware that personal information (employment contracts and payslips) will be provided to Back to Work as evidence for a claim. Employers should note that if they don’t obtain an employee’s consent it is a breach of data protection rules.
Employee sickness absence or unpaid leave
The employer will recruit candidates in accordance with their normal contract and terms and conditions. Should the employer not pay the employee for a period, e.g. unpaid leave or sickness absence, then the employer will not be able to claim a payment for this.
Additional types of pay
Additional payments such as overtime, bonuses, commission, pension, healthcare, benefits in kind (e.g. car, uniforms etc.) do not affect the amount of the Employment Incentive payable to the employer. These additional payments can therefore still be paid to the employee.
Support for employers
Support will be available to employers through the Back to Work team to help the employee overcome any issues and sustain employment. Employers should contact the Back to Work team as soon as an issue arises.
In circumstances where employment cannot be sustained then the employer will still be able to claim a payment under the Employment Incentive on a pro rata basis (dependent upon amount paid to employee) and subject to Back to Work being satisfied that the employer has done all they can to ensure sustainability of employment.
Legal position of employer
The person in respect of whom the incentive is payable will be an employee of the employer making the application to receive the incentive. The employer will recruit candidates in accordance with their normal contract and terms and conditions. Standard probation and notice periods will apply and the employee will have statutory rights and responsibilities under the Employment (Jersey) Law 2003 and Discrimination (Jersey) Law 2013.
Legal Position of Employment Incentive
This is a non-statutory scheme. As such the terms of the Employment Incentive can be amended or withdrawn without notice at the discretion of the Minister for Social Security.
It is expected that employers will use the Employment Incentive as intended and will act in good faith and not release existing entitled staff with the intention of replacing them with new employees under the Employment Incentive. It is also expected that employers will adhere to the qualifying criteria of the incentive both during the incentive period and afterwards. Back to Work therefore reserves the right to request that employers pay back any monies received through the incentive should it be established that the incentive eligible candidate’s terms and conditions of employment have been changed and no longer meet the criteria to which the incentive was offered.
The Minister therefore reserves the right to:
- Restrict or refuse specific employers from access to this or future incentive programmes
- Withhold or cancel interim or final payments to specific employers
- Request additional evidence from the employer
- Request evidence from the employee
- Recover Incentive payments incorrectly claimed
- Use Social Security contributions data and benefit data to verify claims made under the scheme
Additionally, circumstances may arise where an employer claiming a payment under the Employment Incentive is being pursued for monies owed to the Department. Should this situation arise the Minister reserves the right to offset Incentive payments against any monies owed to the department.
As a non-statutory scheme the decision of the Minister of Social Security is final.
Provision and publication of financial accounts
A number of requirements exist for any grant scheme operated by the States of Jersey to ensure that any funds granted are spent in the manner intended. These are detailed below for information.
The Comptroller and Auditor General may audit the employer where the grant received is greater than £5,000. Employers may also be subject to audit where the grant is less than £5,000 if the total amount represents at least 50% of the total income received that year.
Grant receiving organisations must provide accounts in accordance with the table below for each year in which a grant is made by the States of Jersey, except when there are grounds for exemption.
An organisation is able to submit a request for exemption from provision and/or publication of accounts where doing so would disadvantage the organisation’s commercial interests, or breach confidentiality agreements under Freedom of Information or Data Protection Legislation.
Amount of Grant | Financial Accounts | Publication of accounts |
Greater than £75,000 (a) | Audited, signed accounts must be provided within 6 months of the organisation’s year end. | The signed Accounts will be published by the Treasury in a report to the States (b). |
(a) This applies to a single grant of more than £75,000 or multiple grants – from one or more department(s) – for the same purpose that when aggregated exceed £75,000.
(b) In publishing a report to the States, the accounts will be publicly available.
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