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

Thank you everyone for your messages. Alot of people suggested to threaten her that i am calling HMRC, she already knows that. People also asked if i have received a letter to confirm pensions, no i havent, however i have been paying pensions since december, which i havent been notified of, and since i didnt have a payslip i didnt know!! I have now asked her multiple times to provide me with the company name of the pension scheme so i can call them and opt out, she either ignored it or told me she had asked the accountant, what type of employer needs to ask the accountant who their employees are paying pensions to... people have asked if my colleagues are getting paid, its a small business and i only have one colleague who is self employed, so her situation is completely different than mine.

I think what @NatashaAlianovaRomanova and @lifeisgoodmostofthetime have written explains your situation well.

I do sometimes work with people who are self employed and know zero about their payroll and leave it to their accountant. Your employer may not have understood that the actual PAYE had not been set up with HMRC and assumed that you would have 80%.

In this case for whatever reason your employer and her accountant didn't have you on the RTI, perhaps because you are her first or only employee. Under normal rules the accountant thought he had plenty time to set it up, but along came furlough, he missed the deadline and is now blaming HMRC for the delay.

If the accountant does win some sort of case with HMRC or you win a case against your employer it isn't going to happen any time soon and you can not be paid because you cannot be furloughed.

You need to claim benefit, the accountant includes advice about issuing a P45. You could request backdate of benefit for exceptional circumstances and depending on what you claim, but you need to do it quick, you cant afford to delay it.

Bella, it sounds awful. Many many small companies leave the auto-enrolment nest pensions side of things entirely to the accountant as it is complicated and they do not understand it. However she or the accountant should be able to tell you what is going on with the pension contributions that were taken from your PAYE wages. If you have opted out I presume you get back what you paid from the date you opted out or may be it is totally opted out if you tell the employer within the first 30 days or something like that.

I agree with quiet's post above and also as employers are not obliged to offer furlough the fact she mislead you about the state paying it to you sadly probably does not mean you will get it so UC may be the only option (or a job - there seem to be loads near us in Tesco etc - huge banners outside the shop which I have never seen before asking for workers)

Did you get a P60 in April? If your tax and NI and pension etc had been paid to via HMRC as it should have been you'd have received one. I think she is going to get into a lot of trouble from you reporting to HMRC, which is probably a good thing, but probably won't result in you being paid unfortunately.

If you go to Gov.uk you can register to see your personal tax account. It’s changed since I signed up (used to be government gateway but now it’s something else) so not sure how registration works so it may not be immediate, but you will be able to see your tax code and what you have earnt etc. May be a good idea to know the facts before going any further.

its a small business and i only have one colleague who is self employed

Right. That makes sense now, I wondered how she had got away with no scheme being in place with a number of employees.

I agree that nothing is going to happy any time soon if at all, so you need to get on with a UC claim.

However, you do need to find out what is going on. I do accounts and payroll and have set up several PAYE and auto enrolment schemes. If you earn below a certain level and don't pay tax or nic, then the employer does not have to set up a PAYE scheme, however as soon as you hit the Lower Earnings Level, £120 a week (in current tax year) you start to get accredited for NIC , so a scheme should be set up.

If you were auto enrolled into a pension, then you should have received a pack in the post with all the information on to enable you to opt out. If the scheme has only just been set up though, and wasn't done in September, then that info may not have reached you yet, or they may not have set up the scheme properly yet. But they should not be taking pension contributions without your consent.

Keep all evidence that you have , and contact ACAS tomorrow to find out what to do next.

I think that, sadly, the OP’s situation will not be uncommon.

The cost of employing accountants and/or payroll admin companies is huge and for small businesses such as this which are probably more like sole traders or partnerships rather than limited companies might be prohibitive (which begs the question whether they are really profitable - but the reality is that the viability and productivity of many micro businesses are questionable).

In addition the rules are extremely complex and there will be lots of businesses who are doing the wrong thing out of ignorance. With disastrous consequences for the likes of OP.

OP, I’d get advice from CAB or ACAS. It’s really complex and will depend on seeing details in paperwork etc. In the meantime

1. apply for UC ASAP
2. Register and log on to the HMRC self assessment website - this takes some time but would be great as the info you gather will help CAB or whoever to investigate in due course.
3. contact the NI contributions people who i think are in Newcastle and request a record of your contributions/status - sorry I don’t have up to date details for this and toddler in background but should be available on gov.uk
4. pensions - similarly , try and get up to date info on your pensions status , again via gov.uk?

Having the above info won’t do any harm even if you get this particular issue sorted out via another channel eg Employer comes back and pays you.

Good luck, OP.

Please contact Citizens Advice. They will talk you through this. It is complex and you need to be careful in your responses to your line manager. Good luck. Please do threaten..."you have 48 hours else ....". That can come later. Talk to Cit Ad. first.

Do Not threaten, surely?

Definitely agree to contact CAB there may be other benefits other than UC depending on your circumstances.

Alot of people suggested to threaten her that i am calling HMRC, she already knows that.
So just call them tomorrow and see what they say.

fascinated

Oh yes, I meant please do NOT threaten.....oops!

At the end of the day you have an employment relationship here, and yes you need to sort out your pay, and yes she may have handled it terribly but there is no benefit to you to threats.

Thanks everyone. Is there any harm in leaving her a google review explaining all she has done to me so far? I do not have an employment contract, and would like to warn others from working for her. Google reviews is the first thing i look at before i work for a salon/aesthetic clinic. Just wanted to make sure it doesnt come back and bite me

I definitely wouldn’t do that.

No, don't do that. You may need to take her to small claims court to get what you are owed. You will be owed one weeks notice and any holiday you have accrued and not taken. You are also entitled to know where your pension contributions were going.

She may be just completely clueless about her responsibilities hoping to just wing it but now has come unstuck. She needs to realise that she needs to fix this.

@BellaSing1607 OP I would ask mumsnet to remove your screenshots at the very least. I think it is a terrible situation you are in but there are a few identifying details in this, one being her name, and another the kind of business your employer is. There are a few more but those two alone can easily identify the person you are on about.

It's only some advice but you could end up in more trouble than you intend to be in when all you have sought is advice.

Good luck

Did you get a P60 in April?

She’s got until 19th May to issue a P60.

Op don't do that. Stay professional as you most likely have a legal case ahead of you. That would only be ammunition against your case.
But can I ask how on Earth this ended up as so?
Did you not question the lack of contract? The lack of clarity on pensions/HMRC?

And how on Earth did your employer get into this situation, especially as they have an accountant working for her?
If I was your employer I'd be complaining very heavily regarding her accountancy advice.

Someone has majorly stuffed up here.
In the meantime start looking for work elsewhere as this employer isn't fit for purpose regardless

I would do as pp have advised and put a claim in for uc, I would also be calling hmrc on tuesday and also filing a small claims against her.

Just a thought if the op is paying into a pension surely she should be on the payroll to do so?

Just a thought if the op is paying into a pension surely she should be on the payroll to do so?

Is she though? All the workplace pensions which I have set up require the paye reference number.

Just a thought if the op is paying into a pension surely she should be on the payroll to do so?

Payroll software will allow you to set up a dummy pension scheme & "enrol" people into it which will then show the deductions on a payslip - obviously once the actual scheme is set up the submissions should be sent & the payments made.

Given the situation it's unlikely that anything official has actually been set up/sent/paid.

The employer should have registered with the Pensions Regulator and written to the OP within a certain timescale (pension company usually provide the letter) with details of the pension, the contributions and how to opt out.

Don't you realise it would be a really stupid thing to bad review her before you get your pay ? .

Definitely don't leave a bad review. See what you can do to sort this mess out first.