Do I claim benefits while ‘Furloughed’

[ThatsWotSheSaid]

I have received a email advising me I am being laid off temporarily my boss is on annual leave and she clearly has no idea how the retention scheme works as she advised me in the email to apply for it myself.
I suspect the company is in debt and can not afford to pay us anything unless they get money from the government first.
Should I be claiming for benefits or will that make me ineligible for the 80% if it does get sorted?

Its up to your employer to sort the furloughing side of things, you just agree to be furloughed but if your employer refuses to do this i really dont no where you stand. I would imagine if you claim benefits you are saying you no longer work for your employer and you may have no job to return to. I would be pushing you employer to furlough you...

Yes they claim I am being furloughed but the wording in the email is ‘temporarily laid off’

Your boss needs to get a grip and sort this for you. How the hell is anyone who can't work it out in a position to have employees. Her inability to use her brain is no excuse to leave you in the lurch

Not sure how I force her to do her job unfortunately. She seems uninterested in maintaining good relationships with her staff and has flip flopped more times than a politician about what is going to happen re redundancy/furlough/employed.

No one in my sector is hiring ATM so I have to suck it up till this is over.

My reading of the government guidance is that the employer has to submit various documentation/details. Not sure if when but our company are doing it by Tuesday for a lot of staff. Can you get those details together as much as you can and send them over to her, asking that she submits it all? Sounds like she won't do it herself.