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

I can see you are annoyed and it’s understandable but it helps if these things are kept as impersonal as possible...

Thank you @userxx and @NatashaAlianovaRomanova , I just thought of it as a brainwave and I haven't got no experience with pensions so was just curious, but thank you for explaining as it makes sence.

@BellaSing1607 have you decided what route you are going to go down regarding situation with your employer.

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.

What quietheart says here. It's bog standard ignorance on your employer's side, and incompetence on the accountant's. You're the collateral damage.

Get a claim in for benefits as fast as you possibly can.

OP - how stressful.

i have been trying to apply for benefits, looks like i am eligible as i am a swiss citizen and have only been living here for less than 2 years. i have the right to live and work in the UK with a swiss passport, and i have the pre settled status, however i dont think im able to claim benefits without being a british citizen... this whole situation couldnt get worse...

You won't believe this, i have just went online to check if i have been on the payroll, paying Taxes and NI on HMRC and it shows that she has submitted that she paid me for march, including the furlough payment. And for april (which i clearly was not working)
The only thing i can think of right now is that she is keeping the money. Why would she submit to HMRC that she paid me for March including furlough, April (which is only furlough) and then come and tell me we never had an agreement of furlough?

By the sound of it, this is actually really good news. She has defrauded you and hopefully you’ll be able to get the money. I wish you luck with hmrc today. If you can’t get through, try the cab. You can live chat with them. Reduced hour service.

You will need CAB or ACAS.

UC will look at HMRC records and assume they are correct.

Do not post anything derogatory on line. Just keep to facts when talking to people.

Good luck. What a terrible mess.

You won't believe this, i have just went online to check if i have been on the payroll, paying Taxes and NI on HMRC and it shows that she has submitted that she paid me for march, including the furlough payment. And for april (which i clearly was not working)
The only thing i can think of right now is that she is keeping the money. Why would she submit to HMRC that she paid me for March including furlough, April (which is only furlough) and then come and tell me we never had an agreement of furlough?

She may have reported the amounts to HMRC but if you weren't included on an RTI on or before 19th March then you won't qualify & her claim will be rejected based on having no employees on the relevant date.

Reporting an RTI now is no guarantee that you will receive any payment or that she has submitted a claim & that claim has been accepted by HMRC.

It is likely that the payroll will need to be amended either by changing your wages to zero or by making you a leaver & issuing you with a P45.

How are you paid? If it is via the bank then you have a record of payments and also none payments.

Like others have said, you need to print out/download the HMRC website details, and your bank account, so you have the info to hand and speak to CAB or AcAS . If you can print out or screenshot the whats App.. Do you have legal protection on your house insurance? If so, use it.
she is either very confused or is defrauding you. Telling Hmrc you have been paid furlough is serious. It messes up your tax information and liabilites. similarly the pension.deductions.
If you work is aethetics are you also a nurse- if so can you work here? (Not sure how mutual recognician works with nursing and if Switzerland is covered) Or you might need to find a job out of your field if you can't get benefits and she hasn't furloughed you.

I would phone HMRC. When my employers cocked up my maternity pay and told me they couldn’t fix it (strangely a grand in their favour - yer right), I phoned them and they were a massive help. Said if they didn’t fix it, just call again and they would make them fix it plus issue them with a fine. They’re there to help you. Don’t leave a google review.

HMRC have emailed employers and told them that they are updating the system to allow error to be corrected. So she may well have an opportunity to reverse the claim for furlough.

Phone HMRC they will investigate it on your behalf

Wow - I've read through all of this and am stunned that people this dodgy are still able to operate!

I wouldn't necessarily be too quick to blame the accountant - they will only act on the instructions of the employer and unless they're told that the company is employing someone they won't have known to set a scheme up.

The requirements of a PAYE scheme is that an RTI submission has to be sent to HMRC within 3 days of the payment being made. Clearly this hasn't been done and they're potentially in line for some hefty penalties for not doing so.

The fault clearly lies with the business owner though. I would recommend speaking with ACAS in the first place. There are a number of factors to consider:

1. Firstly, getting the money you're entitled to for your March pay - perhaps a small claims court threat/application will sort this for you?
2. Ensuring your earnings to date have been correctly reported to HMRC. If you contact them you can tell them how much you've been paid and they can work it backwards from there to determine how much tax they should have been paid and they'll go after the employer after that.

If the grossed up income that comes to doesn't agree with your agreed salary, then you might be able to further add that to a small claims court claim.

1. Workplace pension - assuming you're required to be enrolled but you hadn't opted out (because you weren't told!) the employer AND you should have been paying contributions. These should have been held in a proper scheme but if a PAYE scheme hadn't been set up there's no way a pension scheme will have been. So either your pension pot is owed money, or you are if she'd deducted your contributions from what she's paid you. I'm not sure if this bit will ever get resolved.

As I say, speak to ACAS, but also HMRC. And definitely don't leave a google review - you need to take the moral high ground on this one. I suspect your employer won't be in business for much longer anyway at this rate.

She is paying you regularly since September. You are employed with deductions through PAYE. Ring HMRC, provide the details, and suggest a compliance visit. Also say there are unpaid wages, as she is in breach of minimum wage rules by not paying you. This carries a fine of approx. £10k.

Her accountant wouldn't allow this, as we are governed by regulators plus we can be prosecuted and imprisoned for facilitating it.

For reference, I am a tax manager/chartered account specialising in... Tax investigations including PAYE

@BellaSing1607
Have you sorted this out with your employer yet?
You have had some good advice from the accountants etc on the thread.

As it's clear that she's claimed furlough for you but not paid you, I think , in order to get that money in these circumstances I'd email her and say along the lines you think she must've muddled your paperwork with someone else, or that the accountant got it wrong and you can see from your HMRC records that you've been furloughed, so it's only a case can she chase the accountants to send the money to your bank account and send you a payslip.

@Ariela the employer has processed furlough pay - we don't know that an actual claim has been submitted or any funds received by the employer.

It looks to me like the payroll hasn't been set up & the RTI's not sent by the 19th March deadline which means that neither the company nor the employee is eligible for the CJRS.

OP's best case scenario here is to have her income reported correctly & apply for any benefits she may be eligible for.

HMRC are very clear on the eligibility & there is no appeals process. It is also at the employers discretion on whether or not to furlough staff so there will be no option for OP to challenge this as the employer can simply say they aren't furloughing & either pay off or ask staff to take unpaid/annual leave.