WORK WOES
Martin Lewis pleads with Chancellor Rishi Sunak to tweak furlough rules to help people who’ve lost new jobs
MARTIN Lewis has pleaded with Chancellor Rishi Sunak to change furlough rules to help workers whose new jobs have fallen through due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Under the coronavirus job retention scheme, employers can ask the government to cover 80 per cent of the salary of furloughed staff if they're temporarily unable to work.
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But as the scheme is only available to those on a payroll on February 28, workers who've recently started a new job could find themselves missing out on financial support.
This includes employees who've had new job offers cancelled, or workers who've been made redundant because their new place of employment has temporarily closed.
Workers can ask previous employers to rehire and furlough them, even if they left for another job, but firms don't have to do this.
Martin, founder of MoneySavingExpert, got this crucial clarification confirmed by the government over the weekend.
How does the furlough scheme work?
ANY UK organisation with employees can apply, including businesses, charities, recruitment agencies and public authorities.
It's up to your place of work to apply to the scheme, meaning you won't need to contact the government yourself.
To access the scheme, your employer must comply with the following:
- Designate employees who cannot do their jobs due to the coronavirus measures put in place by the government
- Notify those employees of their new "furloughed" status
- Submit information to HMRC about furloughed employees to set up a system for reimbursement and about existing systems that will facilitate payments
Although furlough leave can be backdated to March 1, the portal your employer will use to register your fuloughed status will not be up and running until the end of April.
Consequently, you will not be paid until then.
The government furlough scheme covers up to £2,500 a month per employee, but firms can choose to top this up at their discretion.
One concerned viewer asked Martin if the government was likely to alter the February 28 date for the furlough scheme to help Brits who are in-between jobs.
Sadly, Martin said it looked unlikely that the government will change the date at present, pointing to a response from the Chancellor during a Twitter question and answer session last Friday, April 3.
He said: "I put this question to the Chancellor in this Twitter conversation, as did others.
"The Chancellor said they are not going to alter this February 28 date."
Martin said there have been campaigners asking for the Chancellor to change the rules so the deadline applies to having a letter of employment or contract on this date, as opposed to being fully on a payroll.
There hasn't been any confirmation of the government considering changes to the furlough scheme in regards to these suggestions.
Martin continued: "I hope we see the Chancellor move.
"Chancellor, if you’re watching, please, this is a small tweak and it would help a lot of people."
In the Twitter question and answer session, the Chancellor explained the deadline is in place so the government can verify that someone is employed and is entitled to be furloughed.
Mr Sunak said: "We need to have some way of checking that people were actually employed by a company at this time.
"Otherwise the whole system is open to an enormous fraud risk of just anybody saying that they would be working and could be furloughed.
"We need to be able to process these claims and verify these claims. The only way we have to do this is the payroll data.";
MORE ON MONEY
The announcement comes as Martin Lewis said he "sits and cries" over the coronavirus crisis as he struggles to advise families in need.
A few weeks ago, Martin set up his own fund for charities helping coronavirus-hit people and he wants rich people to donate.
Plus, he's urged Brits who aren’t struggling financially to donate money to help people during the coronavirus crisis.
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