To appreciate furlough, but anyone who started a new job after 28/02 is royally fucked...

[IchWill]

My DP left his job on 20/03. He started his new job on 23/03. His workplace shut down on 25/03. He's a head chef in a staff restaurant and can't work from home.

Quite frankly, I'm confused. The .gov.uk says you need to be employed by a company on 28/02 to be eligible for furlough. However, I saw on Twitter a Q&A with HMRC which says anyone on PAYE can be furloughed regardless of start date.

I've spoken to my free legal advice line who say that his ex-employer has no obligation to furlough him, nor does new employer either. The latter of which goes against the HMRC response. So confused. 😢

He's stuck in limbo and also not eligible for any benefits as I have employment. Unfortunately my job is a two year fixed term contract, that was looking vlikely to go permanent before all this, but is now due to end in eight weeks too.

My planned job interviews have obviously been cancelled, so no idea how I can find a job. My legal advisor says that I'm not eligible for furlough either.

I appreciate the government have acted fairly quickly, but new starter PAYE workers who started job after 28/02 fall through the gap.

Plus, I've friends who are self employed who may be eligible for help, but won't see any money until least June.

Previous employer then becomes liable for his holiday pay, ssp, etc. It's not surprising they wouldn't tbh

What's the etc?

The only thing the previous employer is liable for is accrued holiday. Covid19 SSP is reclaimable, and you wouldn't be claiming it anyway as if the employer had been furloughed they're not working, so wouldn't be off sick. Employers NI and pension contributions are also reclaimable.

One of the companies I do payroll for has Re-employed 3 leavers. Unfortunately they're also unable to furlough 2 people who started after 1st March

Yup me too. I am a registered nurse 😐 I am one of many across my speciality and others. We are stuck as NHSP won't take us as we have been out of the NHS for 2 years and the retired register won't take us because we are not retired.
I think ultimately I will be fine but it is madness on many levels.

Good luck to you and your husband, this will end x

My husband started his job on the 2nd of March too so we won’t be getting the 80% pay either. I rang citizens advice and they advised us to try and claim for universal credit!! To me applying for this is money from the government anyway 🙆‍♀️

Is from the government anyway

The etc was shorthand for "any other benefits that employer offers" as they need to continue too. You could probably try to change the old contract terms to remove these on rehiring but it's messy. My own contract includes private medical, life cover, pension contributions above what the government covers, and a few other odds and sods.

It's only covid ssp which is covered - and that has to be reclaimed eventually. Nobody knows how long this could last, you furlough an employee and they get injured/sick then they could come off furlough straight on to sick pay. The accrued holidays is also not trivial if this lasts months. There's also the question of timing for getting the furlough payment-at least March and quite possibly April will need to be paid out before receiving any money from the govt. Anything which increases cash outflow right now is a risk for businesses

It's a lovely thing to do, and we'd still have considered it if we had ex staff who met the criteria (we don't) but I don't think companies who refuse are being unfair.

Didn't hear this first hand, but apparently Martin Lewis said "CONFIRMED: If you left a job after 28 Feb, that old employer can rehire you to furlough you. So if needed ask.

We knew this worked for those made redundant, but Treasury has just confirmed to us, this is allowed for those who left voluntarily (eg to start new job).

Please share with those affected." If that helps at all, I saw it posted by someone who is a citizens advice advisor so maybe worth exploring

@StatisticallyChallenged

Good points, its a long time since I worked for a company that offered any decent benefits, I forget they exist 😁

I agree that many companies, just won't be able to do it and it's totally understandable. It's a bit of a minefield even for companies that can afford to make the payments, on the understanding they get it back later.

I think I'd also be wary as we have had a few Mickey takers in the last few years with sick pay which would make me nervous about being responsible for anyone who wasn't actually going to be part of our business in the future. One person did less than 2 weeks work before promptly being signed off for over 5 months - and there was bugger all we could do.