Furlough Emergency Fund

[Medieval Knievel]

My daughter is currently working from home. She has just received her wage slip and has had money deducted for “Furlough Emergency Fund”. She is unable to contact Payroll until Monday.
Does anyone have any idea what this would be?

[Benbay001]

As the govt only pay 80%, could it be the companys way of administering the 20% reduction?

[Butter Face]

Benbay001 said:

As the govt only pay 80%, could it be the companys way of administering the 20% reduction?

If she’s working from home then she’s not furloughed and should be getting normal pay.

Sounds like someone’s cocked up!

[Benbay001]

Sorry, should have read it properly.

[hunton69]

If your furloughed then you cannot work for the company that has furloughed you.

[anonymous-user]

I wonder if they are claiming the furlough grants, but forgot the bit to furlough the employee...

[barryrs]

I read that you can’t undertake income generating work whilst furloughed, not that you can’t work at all.

Seems the definition of income generation is difficult to pin down though.

[V8mate]

barryrs said:

I read that you can’t undertake income generating work whilst furloughed, not that you can’t work at all.

Seems the definition of income generation is difficult to pin down though.

You can't do any work for your employer.
You can do voluntary work if you wish.
You can take paid work with another employer, with your main employer's permission.

ETA: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/check-if-you-could-be-...

Edited by V8mate on Friday 17th April 19:24

[Shnozz]

V8mate said:

You can't do any work for your employer.
You can do voluntary work if you wish.
You can take paid work with another employer, with your main employer's permission.

ETA: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/check-if-you-could-be-...

Edited by V8mate on Friday 17th April 19:24

It seems the scheme is far too easy to manipulate. The amount of people I have heard of who have been furloughed and are continuing to work on the guise of "voluntary" is disgusting, frankly. Sadly it seems everyone is maximising whatever ways they can to bring in whatever they can, through whatever mechanism they can. I only hope that once the dust has settled, investigations are launched to look at how genuine these furlough claims were. Sadly I expect the economic state will be too fragile that there will be no appetite to do so as any efforts to recover monies paid would cause businesses to fail if they survive the interim.

[doogle83]

Medieval Knievel said:

My daughter is currently working from home. She has just received her wage slip and has had money deducted for “Furlough Emergency Fund”. She is unable to contact Payroll until Monday.
Does anyone have any idea what this would be?

An alternative stab... Reads to me likes she's had a pay cut and the company are building funds in case they have the need to furlough staff later.

If companies don't have the cash to fund the furlough salaries until the gov pay up then they'll go bust instead presumably.

Not a terrible idea if it was well communicated, agreed by everyone involved and obviously would be paid back later if it turned out they didn't need it... Sounds like they fell at the first hurdle here though.

[s2sol]

Shnozz said:

It seems the scheme is far too easy to manipulate. The amount of people I have heard of who have been furloughed and are continuing to work on the guise of "voluntary" is disgusting, frankly. Sadly it seems everyone is maximising whatever ways they can to bring in whatever they can, through whatever mechanism they can. I only hope that once the dust has settled, investigations are launched to look at how genuine these furlough claims were. Sadly I expect the economic state will be too fragile that there will be no appetite to do so as any efforts to recover monies paid would cause businesses to fail if they survive the interim.

Why worry about what everyone else is doing? I'm a sole trader, and I'm pretty sure that I'll get 80% of my declared earnings paid as a taxable sum, some time in June. I'm still working, and my conscience says I shouldn't take it. My head says I should take it, pay the tax on it and be grateful for it. The difference I could make by saying to HMRC "don't worry about it, I'll be fine." is a drop in the ocean. This thing is going to cost the economy unfathomable amounts of money, and my children will be paying for it in punitive taxation long after I'm dead. A few thousand here or there will make fk all difference at the end of the day. Do the best you can for yourself, and try to ensure you're here to pay taxes in the future.

[V8mate]

doogle83 said:

Medieval Knievel said:

My daughter is currently working from home. She has just received her wage slip and has had money deducted for “Furlough Emergency Fund”. She is unable to contact Payroll until Monday.
Does anyone have any idea what this would be?

An alternative stab... Reads to me likes she's had a pay cut and the company are building funds in case they have the need to furlough staff later.

If companies don't have the cash to fund the furlough salaries until the gov pay up then they'll go bust instead presumably.

Not a terrible idea if it was well communicated, agreed by everyone involved and obviously would be paid back later if it turned out they didn't need it... Sounds like they fell at the first hurdle here though.

At my wife's firm, they put half the staff on furlough (sit at home doing SFA) and the for the half enforced a 20% reduction in pay, but still working full-time.

Typically, she fell into the skeleton staff cohort.

[Medieval Knievel]

Thanks for the replies.

Just to be clear - she hasn’t been furloughed and she’s still on full wage but working from home. This is a deduction on her normal wage to this fund. She’s had no notification of what it is or why. There’s a chance it’s just an error, and on Monday no doubt she’ll get her answer.

[Butter Face]

How much was it as a % of her wage?

[IanJ9375]

V8mate said:

At my wife's firm, they put half the staff on furlough (sit at home doing SFA) and the for the half enforced a 20% reduction in pay, but still working full-time.

Typically, she fell into the skeleton staff cohort.

Can't enforce a pay reduction - she would need to have accepted it, I only know this as our company tried it on us

[V8mate]

IanJ9375 said:

V8mate said:

At my wife's firm, they put half the staff on furlough (sit at home doing SFA) and the for the half enforced a 20% reduction in pay, but still working full-time.

Typically, she fell into the skeleton staff cohort.

Can't enforce a pay reduction - she would need to have accepted it, I only know this as our company tried it on us

Sure. They did ask. But there were no alternatives offered

[ALawson]

IanJ9375 said:

V8mate said:

At my wife's firm, they put half the staff on furlough (sit at home doing SFA) and the for the half enforced a 20% reduction in pay, but still working full-time.

Typically, she fell into the skeleton staff cohort.

Can't enforce a pay reduction - she would need to have accepted it, I only know this as our company tried it on us

We have across the board had between 10-30% deductions, they sent a link out for you to accept reduction. I was happy to but did query with HR who simply stated they would do it anyway regardless of consent. I do have to say I thought an employer cannot make deductions, but following some reading on the matter I think they may be able to.

[StevenB]

s2sol said:

Shnozz said:

It seems the scheme is far too easy to manipulate. The amount of people I have heard of who have been furloughed and are continuing to work on the guise of "voluntary" is disgusting, frankly. Sadly it seems everyone is maximising whatever ways they can to bring in whatever they can, through whatever mechanism they can. I only hope that once the dust has settled, investigations are launched to look at how genuine these furlough claims were. Sadly I expect the economic state will be too fragile that there will be no appetite to do so as any efforts to recover monies paid would cause businesses to fail if they survive the interim.

Why worry about what everyone else is doing? I'm a sole trader, and I'm pretty sure that I'll get 80% of my declared earnings paid as a taxable sum, some time in June. I'm still working, and my conscience says I shouldn't take it. My head says I should take it, pay the tax on it and be grateful for it. The difference I could make by saying to HMRC "don't worry about it, I'll be fine." is a drop in the ocean. This thing is going to cost the economy unfathomable amounts of money, and my children will be paying for it in punitive taxation long after I'm dead. A few thousand here or there will make fk all difference at the end of the day. Do the best you can for yourself, and try to ensure you're here to pay taxes in the future.

Would the problem not be that lots do the same as you suggest ? added together that would make a difference ...

[200Plus Club]

ALawson said:

IanJ9375 said:

V8mate said:

At my wife's firm, they put half the staff on furlough (sit at home doing SFA) and the for the half enforced a 20% reduction in pay, but still working full-time.

Typically, she fell into the skeleton staff cohort.

Can't enforce a pay reduction - she would need to have accepted it, I only know this as our company tried it on us

We have across the board had between 10-30% deductions, they sent a link out for you to accept reduction. I was happy to but did query with HR who simply stated they would do it anyway regardless of consent. I do have to say I thought an employer cannot make deductions, but following some reading on the matter I think they may be able to.

Without agreement or consultation that's probably an illegal deduction of wages. Employment law still applies. The only trouble is it's unlikely any employment tribunals will be sitting in judgement anytime soon.

Basically if you don't agree they should start a consultation period then force on you new contracts etc or it's classed as breaking your contract terms and conditions.

Plenty of info out there about it and also free advice from citizens advice bureau and ACAS.
We did pretty much this conversation last week on behalf of the wife.

[Buzz84]

V8mate said:

At my wife's firm, they put half the staff on furlough (sit at home doing SFA) and the for the half enforced a 20% reduction in pay, but still working full-time.

Typically, she fell into the skeleton staff cohort.

Identical situation to my place of work. I am in the furloughed group.

But in my case my colleagues who are still working are better off on their 80%.
Where as while I am furloughed on 80% pay. I wont actually receive 80% of my pay as under the furlough scheme as its capped at £2500. This means realistically I am only actually recieving 60% pay. (All basic, I have not worked in the loss of my regular overtime too)

So the "Sit at home doing SFA" isnt necessarily the better option.

(Obvioulsly I dont know your wifes pay and how it affects your families finances to know which situation she's better off in)

Edited by Buzz84 on Friday 17th April 23:02