Furloughed / Self Employed Workers Discussion

[Bletchleyite]

What is stop a business that hasn't been particularly affected by this crisis (or would normally see a seasonal downturn this time of year ) furloughing their staff to get the taxpayer to pick up the wage bill whilst they still do work for them?

The fact that it's against the law for the furloughed person to do work for the furloughing company.

Can you work elsewhere whilst receiving furlough payment?

I don't see why not, there's no law against having two jobs and many people do.

 

[Meerkat]

Plenty of opportunity for bad employers to cut their costs for a few months by furloughing employees and letting the rest take the unchanged workload!

 

[Bletchleyite]

Plenty of opportunity for bad employers to cut their costs for a few months by furloughing employees and letting the rest take the unchanged workload!

It's an imperfect option. It's not something I'd have chosen to do (I'd have gone with UBI offset against tax allowance for those still working) but whatever was done it needed doing quickly.

 

[Meerkat]

It's an imperfect option. It's not something I'd have chosen to do (I'd have gone with UBI offset against tax allowance for those still working) but whatever was done it needed doing quickly.

Too true. Anything you do will be gamed by those who see it as an opportunity rather than a safety net.
As the government will be short of cash i do hope they set up a department for a vindictive chasing and fining of those who took advantage.

 

[Deafdoggie]

What is stop a business that hasn't been particularly affected by this crisis (or would normally see a seasonal downturn this time of year ) furloughing their staff to get the taxpayer to pick up the wage bill whilst they still do work for them?

Can you work elsewhere whilst receiving furlough payment?

As per original post, the employee can’t provide a service for the company or earn the company any income. I can’t think of any industries or sectors that would have a downturn at this time of year but would otherwise be unaffected by Coronavirus. We must be talking very small numbers at most.

You can have another job whilst furloughed as long as your employer doesn’t mind, and you can show you would be back to your original employer after furlough.

 

[Ivor]

Following some discussions with family members on the issue, I thought it might be a good idea to have a thread specifically on the issues arising for workers currently furloughed by the crisis, and for the self employed.

One family member yesterday asked me when they might expect to receive their furloughed pay, as their employer had indicated that it might be well into May or even June before they would get anything. My impression was that HMRC had the intention of issuing grants to employers by the end of April. But digging a little deeper into the gov.uk site there doesn't seem to be any real detail on how & when these will be processed. Obviously this is going to be of great concern to many, as an awful lot of workers are now going without pay & many will have little or no capital to back them up. So should the government be doing more to clarify the situation and reassure workers?

I know this thread is for furloughed/self employed so if necessary I understand if moved to a separate thread as I’m zero hours railway agency staff.

We have been advised no more work for the immediate future as TOC has cut back to the bone (quite rightly)

Other than SSP (& fortunately so far I’m not ill) there is no help re zero hours & even if SSP taken the worker has had to average £118 a week in previous weeks & that’s vague it seems to be previous four weeks & I like many with declining shifts latterly we haven’t earned that figure.

Not complaining as furloughed & self employed should receive help but the zero hour (gig) workers seem to have become a ‘forgotten race’

 

[Dai Corner]

I know this thread is for furloughed/self employed so if necessary I understand if moved to a separate thread as I’m zero hours railway agency staff.

We have been advised no more work for the immediate future as TOC has cut back to the bone (quite rightly)

Other than SSP (& fortunately so far I’m not ill) there is no help re zero hours & even if SSP taken the worker has had to average £118 a week in previous weeks & that’s vague it seems to be previous four weeks & I like many with declining shifts latterly we haven’t earned that figure.

Not complaining as furloughed & self employed should receive help but the zero hour (gig) workers seem to have become a ‘forgotten race’

I may be wrong, but I think your agency may be able to furlough you and claim 80% of your average earnings from the Governmrnt?

Hope you can find other work in the meantime.

https://www.acas.org.uk/coronavirus/if-the-employer-needs-to-close-the-workplace

Says zero-hours workers are included.

 

[Jayden99]

I'd just left my previous job to start a new career right as this all kicked off, spoken to my old company to see if they'd temporarily take me back on as furloughed crew seeing as my start date was delayed and they're actually pretty open to the idea. Don't know if anyone else is in a similar situation but it's definitely something to try

 

[Ivor]

I may be wrong, but I think your agency may be able to furlough you and claim 80% of your average earnings from the Governmrnt?

Hope you can find other work in the meantime.

https://www.acas.org.uk/coronavirus/if-the-employer-needs-to-close-the-workplace

Says zero-hours workers are included.

Thank you Dai, a colleague approached them & the answer was because there is not continuity of employment (some weeks work some or many weeks nothing) we do not qualify.

Have emailed Citizen Advice but like everywhere at the moment they are inundated.

 

[Dai Corner]

Thank you Dai, a colleague approached them & the answer was because there is not continuity of employment (some weeks work some or many weeks nothing) we do not qualify.

Have emailed Citizen Advice but like everywhere at the moment they are inundated.

I'm not an expert in the process, but

Employees whose pay varies
If the employee has been employed for 12 months or more, you can claim the highest of either the:

• same month’s earning from the previous year
• average monthly earnings for the 2019-2020 tax year

If the employee has been employed for less than 12 months, claim for 80% of their average monthly earnings since they started work.

If the employee only started in February 2020, work out a pro-rata for their earnings so far, and claim for 80%.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-for-wage-costs-through-the-coronavirus-job-retention-scheme

 

[Ivor]

I'm not an expert in the process, but



https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-for-wage-costs-through-the-coronavirus-job-retention-scheme

Cheers