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4810. Am I eligible to make a claim for Employment Allowance from April 2020 under the new Employment Allowance reform? (or) What checks do I need to do before submitting a claim for Employment Allowance through EPS?
 

1) Employers' (secondary) Class 1 National Insurance Contributions threshold check - Was your employers' (secondary) Class 1 NICs liability less than the legislated threshold in the previous year?

  • If your answer is "no" you aren't eligible.
  • If you're a "connected company", you'll need to add together the total employers' (secondary) Class 1 NICs liabilities incurred by all the companies in the group. If the total amount is equal to or more than the threshold, you and the other connected companies will not be eligible to claim.
  • If you're an"employer with multiple payrolls" (or who had multiple payrolls in the tax year before the year of the claim), you should add together all of the employers' (secondary) Class 1 NICs incurred by each payroll in the tax year before the year of claim to check if that amount is equal to or more than the threshold. If it is, you'll not be eligible to claim. You will need to decide which PAYE scheme to set the claim against.

You can find further info at Employment Allowance: further guidance for employers

2) de minimis State aid threshold check - Does your business undertake economic activity? If De minimis State aid rules will apply to your business and you must select "YES" against which sector(s) your business falls under, choose all that apply from -

  • Is Employer in the Agricultural sector?
  • Is Employer in the Fisheries and Aquaculture sector?
  • Is Employer in the Road Transport sector?
  • Is Employer in the Industrial/Other sector?

(Not involved in Agriculture, Fisheries and Aquaculture or Road Transport sectors?) (If your business does NOT belong to Agriculture, Fisheries and Aquaculture or Road Transport sectors, then please state YES)

Are State-aid rules not applicable to the Employer?

(Answer : Yes, means State-aid rules are not applicable as you are not undertaking any economic activity (such as Charities, CASC, Employing someone to provide personal care)
(Answer : No, means State-aid rules are applicable, and you have indicated your economic activity by answering 'Yes' to any one of the above 4 questions.)

You must ensure that when you add the full Employment Allowance in the claim year (converted to Euro) to any other de minimis State aid (already received or allocated in the claim year and previous two tax years), does not exceed the de minimis State aid threshold for the specific trade sector. If the total exceeds the threshold, you won't be eligible to claim.

You can find details of the ceilings for each sector at Click here and more information about State aid at Guidance State aid

You can find the eligibility details for making an EA Claim at Employment Allowance Eligibility