Furlough Eligibility

Long story short. Handed in my notice on the 28th Feb with a 6 week notice period. Last day this Friday.

Reason for giving notice was I was going to buy a business connected to the leisure industry. Naturally this has fallen through.

Question is, thoughts about going back to my employer claiming furlough. Im aware that I’m not going from employer to another. But the principal should be the same.

Not that it costs the company anything just time to fill out a form.

Thoughts n musings

Ask your old employer if they’ll keep you on the books and furlough you. The government has said that this is perfectly okay and Martin Lewis has appealed to companies to do the right thing by people during the crisis.

However, as my wife has found out, some people/companies just can’t pass up the opportunity to go full on cockwomble.

Someone described them as gate keepers to the welfare system.

My wife was moving from one company to another, leaving on good terms (do we thought) and not going to a competitor. She’s now caught between one company that would furlough but can’t and another that could, but won’t.

Thanks Onz. Sounds just like what I’m about to experience. It’s not going from one employer to another but to being business owner. Granted I have provenance to support this.

Onz. It’s Government policy, some companies are simply incompetent whilst stating they are employee focused. Cite a mission statement to them lol 😝

The key word is “ask”

Its not that simple unfortunately.
In order to be furloughed you need to be employed – and you cant just expect the company to take you back, after all, you left.

If they took you back on just to furlough you then effectively they’re stuck with you, assuming your business purchase isn’t going ahead would they want you to work for them again after you’ve quit? And likewise would you want to. If they have to make redundancies after then you could cost money if they didn’t want to keep you on but you didn’t have anywhere to go to.

I would say if you’re going back just to be furloughed, probably not but depends on the circumstances. If you want your job back then thats different and if you are on good terms why not but have they furloughed everyone else? You don’t just claim furlough, its a specific term being used to keep staff employed that would otherwise be made redundant or laid off.

Bear in mind that employers are trying to navigate through this mess as well, obviously some are doing better jobs than others of it.

The 28th feb thing is terrible. There will be thousands of people in a similar boat. I appreciate it is there to stop false claims but its causing issues all over the place

They really should have done UBI. None of these conditions etc that let some people fall through the cracks and therefore really easy to administer. But I guess they didn’t want to have to get rid of 99% of the DWP’s staff and don’t really mean it when “we’re all in this together” – especially if you’re on a high wage.

In order to be furloughed you need to be employed – and you cant just expect the company to take you back, after all, you left.

AS I read it you need to have been ‘on the pay roll’ on that date. In my industry a lot of people are on multiple short term PAYE freelance positions each year so they they are not and would not be working for the same employer as they would back in February but the expectation is for them to go back to those employers – the one you were working for in February. Having left, voluntarily or otherwise is irrelevant.

You’re not asking to be ‘taken back’ – the Furlough scheme is a mechanism for the government to administer funding without having to set up a new funding system at the drop of the hat – so they are doing that by running the PAYE system in reverse just as they are effectively running the Self Assessment system backwards backwards for the Self Employed.

You’re not asking the employer for your job back you’re asking them to administer the Furlough scheme – using the PAYE arrangements they already have in place for you –  for the duration the Furlough situation runs for. After that you’re on your own.

Thanks for that. A little ray of hope. I’ve forwarded your reply to the wife and suggested she ignore managers and just go straight to payroll.

Tricky situation. If you left employment prior to the date scheme was announced I think you are going to be out of luck.

If you where employed on the date scheme was announced you may be able to argue employer should have consulted employees on Furlough as it’s the employer who decides to invoke the scheme not the employee.

Assuming you’ve left on good terms and they’ve invoked furlough worth a call to see what’s possible given details for the scheme still being worked out.

The entire scheme smacks of political spin and brinksmanship.
Bearing in mind the furlough scheme is likely to be ‘paid back’ as future tax breaks for businesses, I really can’t get my head around this advice.

You’ll effectively be asking your ex-employer to lend you 80% (upto £7500) of your old wage for three months.

How many companies do you know that can manage that sort of additional expenditure for their existing staff – never mind ex-employees…

Yes, you can do it. If you google it Martin Lewis talks about it as an option.

It is something that your old employer would need to agree to. I’m proof that it can work though. Yesterday was supposed to me my last day. My new company pulled my contract due to start next week. MY old company have taken me back and I’ll get some pay. They do need to put you back on what ever systems they have and they pay you then claim the money so their is an admin cost associated.

You can only try to ask. I appealed to my old boss rather than HR as we worked together for 6 years so he was more likely to push it from a personal point of view to help me.

https://www.heart.co.uk/showbiz/tv-movies/thismorning/martin-lewis-employers-re-hire-coronavirus/

If you want any advice PM me. I can send you a redacted version of my email. IF you can find it he talked about it as a specific example on the martin lewis money show last thursday on ITV.

I have come back on a temporary basis. Explicit end date has been set so their is no long term obligation on their part.

What Ierk said. It is still depending on the cash that the employer has at the moment. Given that part of the Furlough is to support business as well as individuals, the business has to look after its employees and not go bust. For business at the moment the big problem is going to be trying to get paid for work invoiced in Feb. Many companies are holding on to cash and not paying (In small part due to staff being Furloughed!) A refusal to agree to this wouldn’t mean the company were monsters, it may be that they didn’t have the cash!