My employer is scamming me!! HELP

[BellaSing1607]

When corona virus started, my employer decided to close before the lockdown happened and before the Furlough scheme came out. When they announced the scheme, i asked my employer via whatsapp what will happen from now on, she said that "she will pay me up until the 17th of march which is up to when i have worked, and from there on the government will pay 80% of my salary."
I assumed this is her way of telling me i have now been furloughed. I checked in with her a few days later again, and asked her if the government will pay 80% of my salary, to which she responded "yes, I told you about this before and the accountants are working on it" so its a pretty clear agreement. I had no idea she was meant to send me a formal letter to announce that i have been furloughed.
Days come and go and whenever i would ask her for my payment, she would say the government hasn't paid her yet so she can't pay me, that there is a very long qeue and everyone is waiting, that we are all in this together and i should be patient bla bla. May came and i still hadn't gotten paid for march, not even the days i had actually worked. I asked all my friends and they all said they had gotten paid on the furlough scheme. (I only have one colleague and she is self employed)

I messaged the employer again to tell her everyone i know had gotten paid on the furlough scheme except me, what the problem is, and that the issue is wirh her not the government. She then replied and said we are not able to pay you because her accountants hadn't put me on the payroll by the deadline which was 19TH OF MARCH !! I had been working there since SEPTEMBER!!!.

when i asked her to send me an email to confirm that i had been furloughed she denied that we had any kind of agreement of me being furloughed, saying that she only sent these text based on an assumption. I am going crazy as now i am already minus 3 months in salary and i dont think i can do anyrhing about it.

I have been working for this woman since september last year, haven't received any of my payslips until mid april. I haven't asked for them as i never needed one, and thought if she is messing around with my taxes that would be her problem. Ofcourse now looking back i feel stupid for not asking for them.

In my last payslip that she sent me, it includes furlough payment although she didnt end up paying the amount as there was a mistake with the amount. Do you think this is enoigh proof to confirm we did have an agreement of furloughing me ?

What can i do to get my money ??? Please help

Yes i have , she denies it. I wish i could send you guys the screenshots of the conversation, i dont know if there is a way in doing this here. She denies that we had an agreement and says: i only sent these messages based on an assumption, we never had an agreement .....

@Bluntness100 the way she calculated the furlough payment was wrong in my opinion, reason being: i have worked for her 4 days a week for the past couple of months, before the lockdown i had asked her to step down to 3 days a week. She then calculated the furlough based on a pro rota 3 days a week and paying me 80% of that, which is not what the government website states. On their website it states you will receive 80% of your average monthly payments since you started working there. I should have known from then that she's a scammer

You need proper legal advice. I’d start with contacting citizens advice.

our employer needs to write to you and you need to agree. I think this was the amendment made to the original rule that your employer simply had to notify you.

You also need to be kept on the books are you still employed?

www.acas.org.uk/coronavirus/furlough-closing-workplaces

Your employer I meant

This is her CLEARLY saying that i will be furloughed. The next two images will show how she denies it now.

This is her denying it.

Unbelievable right

You should have been given a letter advising that you were being placed on furlough, with the relevant dates & whether or not you would only be getting 80% or the employer would be topping up.

To be eligible for furlough you need to be included in an RTI submission received by HMRC on or before the 19th March - I work in a payroll bureau & it isn't unusual for a client to advise us that they've had an employee for 6 months, been paying them £300 a week & asking us to provide backdated payslips showing a take home pay of £300.

We have quite a few clients who have suddenly advised us that they have employees who have been working for months & now there's a mad rush to get them on the payroll system - they won't be eligible as the RTI's including these employees won't be received within the timescale as they weren't even created until after the 19th March.

If you're not being furloughed then the accountants will have to amend the payroll, issue you with an amended payslip & send an APS to HMRC advising that there's a correction to an earlier submission

Speak to CAB. It’s ambiguous.

OP, do you mean that the business has closed down for good, or that it has closed temporarily? I took it to mean temporarily, hence my advice, because your employer would not have mentioned furlough if the business was closed for good.

Therefore you are not redundant unless specifically advised of that by your employer. I have several clients who are "closed down" but certainly not for good.

Your employer is in the wrong, it is her decision to furlough you, and because she is now claiming that the accountant has messed up, she is messing you around. She is claiming that she can only furlough you if she knows that she is going to get paid by HMRC as otherwise she can't afford it. I have several clients who only paid their employees once they had received the money from HMRC, but they all knew that they would get it.

You need to stop the exchanges with her though as it doesn't look good. Find out your rights from ACAS, see what the accountant comes up with and take it from there. and ring HMRC as I suggested, to check your record. (or do it online would be easier).

@NatashaAlianovaRomanova but i have all my previous payslips now... and am not asking for backdated payslips , does that not mean i should have the RTI already?

And if they haven’t put you onto the payroll, you can’t be added retrospectively. I work for an accountants and currently have a formal complaint from a client where a payroll was not set up in time to qualify for furlough

What a cow!

@ilovemyrednosedaymug yes i meant closing temporarily as i worked in an aesthetic clinic and we were facing high risk of doing facials on clients etc, so we decided to stop working before the government put down the rules. thanks for your reply

It is quite a complex issue with the state having changed the rules a bit - about what "agreement" you need with an employee to put them formally and in law on furlough. Seewww.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=e72b2520-2659-4b69-a0cd-76d9253bd0ea including "The Guidance note reiterates that staff who are working but on a reduced hours basis cannot be covered by the furlough scheme "

Bella thanks for clarifying that, as it makes it clear that you were not made redundant, as the intention was to furlough you until she discovered the "accountant's error" and the business will reopen when safe to do so.

xenia that wouldn't apply here though because it means that an employee is still working some hours , so cannot be furloughed as to do that, they must not work at all.

This is the email that she forwarded me from her accountant. I am so confused

If you've been paying tax for months why has she only asked to set up a paye reference in Feb?
You have to have that set up for the company BEFORE you start running a payroll.

Yeah that’s weird for sure.

What a terrible situation. She had been clearly paying you but not doing the tax properly from September until February.

I don't know how you are going to get this sorted but at the very least, she owes you statutory notice and accrued holiday pay if it were to be backdated and she claims that you were let go in March. She has not followed procedure for this but at the very least, she does owe you this and it may not be worth fighting it further.

Is she planning on opening again? Is she hoping you will carry on working for her if she does?

Do you have any idea if she can afford to cover the furlough payments for you without getting reimbursed?

You've left her name on one of the messages.

It's not ambiguous at all. It's super fast back peddling now she's shitting herself.