Furlough

[skyblu]

Not sure where to ask this, so posting here for traffic...

My DH has a chronic lung condition, see’s a dr 4 times a year, is on meds. Has received shielding letters through the whole pandemic.

He works for a small family company, (cannot work from home it’s a driving job). He is on a zero hours contract.

In normal circumstances, he only gets paid for any hours he actually works (but is so busy, that’s averages about 50+ hrs a week)

Last year he received furlough money during all the lockdowns (summer & Nov) but at the end of Nov, his company told him they were not paying furlough anymore as it’s costing them too much (in Tax & NI). He took all 4 weeks holiday in Dec, so that he still bought money in but didn’t have to risk anything.

His company has remained open/working through the whole year.

My question is what happens now....
On one hand my husband is being told he is extremely vulnerable and must shield.
However, his company is open and won’t pay him furlough.

Does he have any legal case or does he either have to go to work and ‘risk it’ or stay home and have no money?

We’re just not sure what to do/who to ask.

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

Not sure if this is helpful. I'm not sure how they can claim it's costing them money in taxes etc as they are getting a grant from the government. I think there are links at the bottom of the webpage for contacting hmrc.

There’s no legal requirement for his work to put him on furlough if they don’t want to. He is likely to be eligible for SSP though if he has a shielding letter. Have you looked into that?

@SharesinClarks

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

Not sure if this is helpful. I'm not sure how they can claim it's costing them money in taxes etc as they are getting a grant from the government. I think there are links at the bottom of the webpage for contacting hmrc.

It costs them the employers national insurance, employers pension, possibly other benefits in kind and the 20% if they are making up his pay to 100%. They're certainly not getting all the costs repaid to them.

@SharesinClarks

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

Not sure if this is helpful. I'm not sure how they can claim it's costing them money in taxes etc as they are getting a grant from the government. I think there are links at the bottom of the webpage for contacting hmrc.

Employers have to pay NI and pension contributions for their employees on furlough. Some can’t afford to do that so no furlough.

Does it cost them more to furlough an employee than to pay them?

No it’s more expensive to pay them in full then it is to furlough but it dies still cost them. Ssp costs them nothing as they can claim it from the government.

That’s the issue we have I think. Ordinarily, if my husband doesn’t work, he doesn’t get paid. Therefore his company are only paying when he’s actually earning them money.
Whereas on Furlough, they’re having to pay his tax/NI/Pension contributions with no money coming into the company.

Even if they took the 80% of his salary and then took out the NI /tax/pension from that and then just gave him whatever’s left after all deductions, it would still be better for us than receiving zero.....but I suppose that’s ‘dodgy’ and can’t be done.

Mousehole

Yes we’ll have to look at the SSP route....although I think that is just £30 a week or something. £120 a month is better than nothing of course...but won’t go very far.

They were going to set him up for SSP back in March last year but the furlough became an available option.
So SSP must be allowed for him.

Or he just works....

SSP is definitely an option if he has a shielding letter. It’s around £95 per week I thought?

@Mousehole10

No it’s more expensive to pay them in full then it is to furlough but it dies still cost them. Ssp costs them nothing as they can claim it from the government.

Companies can't reclaim ssp now. There was an exception for covid but it's only 2 weeks (unless it changed yet again!)