UK coronavirus help and your rights - MSE News 17 March 2020 at 6:35PM in Coronavirus Support and Help 59 replies 8.5K views

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UK coronavirus help and your rights

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seansharp

Hi there, wondering if anyone can help. I’m in a rubbish position where I had been offered a job and due to start next week but unfortunately contracts were not sent out in time and now the job offer has obviously been withdrawn, it’s not like i can find a job elsewhere at the moment, and as a home owner I won’t be entitled to any benefit, I used to be self employed but changed my status due to planning to go back to normal employment so I won’t be eligible for any support that they put in place for the self employed either but am really worried financially as no savings to fall Back on, apart from a mortgage holiday is there anything I can do? 

Really worried 

Jeremy535897

Check your eligibility for universal credit.

calcotti

Look at a Universal Credit and Council Tax Reduction.
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/universal-credit/
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/help-if-on-a-low-income/help-with-your-council-tax-council-tax-reduction/
there are benefit calculators that will allow you to assess entitlement
https://www.gov.uk/benefits-calculators

seansharp

Thanks, I was under the assumption that as a home owner universal credit wouldn’t be available to me 

RichardSarsby

what happenes about public holidays when you are furloughed if you work for a company that has those days as compulsory holidays?  are those companies supposed to treat these the same as any other annual leave days and therefore if they allow you to change any annual leave days booked they should also allow you to take any public holidays that fall over the time that you are furloughed on a different date when you are not, or can they treat the public holidays differently.  If they are treating public holidays seperately and making employees take them while they are furloughed, if they are paying employees less than 100% while they are furloughed, do they have to pay employees 100% on the public holidays?

Hope this makes sense, and thanks in advance.

HornetSaver

Posting here in the hope that this finds its way to an MSE staffer.

I know the actual hard information on furlough is thin on the ground and let me stress that MSE's staff have been absolute troopers during the current crisis in what is a truly unenviable position for you. You have without question put out the single most important and valuable piece of information, prominently, which is anyone who has been laid off should seek to engage their former employers to be re-employed and placed on furlough.

But I'm seeing a lot of posts here that seem to be under the impression that furlough is an employee right, a form of voluntary leave, an 80% Government pay guarantee for all employees, etc. It's understandable why it is being perceived as any of those things, but very important that people understand that, immensely generous though it may be, it's none of those. It's an incentive for employers, which they can choose to apply for, through which they can retain workers who would otherwise be let go due to Covid-19 but whose jobs will be viable afterwards. And should employers apply for workers to be furloughed, those employees are then afforded the 80% from the scheme (hopefully topped up by those employers able to do so).

New questions raised on the forums are often a decent indicator of the public's level of awareness/knowledge on the topic. Therefore based on the amount of times forum regulars have needed to point out what furlough actually is, my conclusion is that information is not sufficiently cutting through to the public at large. The existence of furlough is not a blanket guarantee that if you are or were an employee this month, you're going to get at least 80% of what you normally do, come what may, unless you are actually furloughed. Nor is it a blanket guarantee that you won't be laid off. Nor is it a guarantee that if you're laid off you're getting 80% from the state. All of these assumptions have been made multiple times by those coming to these forums for advice.

My fear is that the shortcomings of furlough (and in no way do I mean that as any criticism of the Government's good intentions) are not being successfully communicated, which might be delaying people from taking necessary steps now to improve their position by, for instance, seeking mortgage holidays and benefits if it is clear that the furlough scheme does not apply to their circumstances.

calcotti

Excellent post, HornetSaver. Thank you.

mmunro2013

As an Exam Invigilator with confirmed shifts through May and June who will pay my lost wages? Similarly, as an Event Steward (e.g. football match steward) who will pay my lost wages? 

Cloughy01

I hope this question finds someone that can help...

I am due to start a new job on Monday and they are furloughing. Will I still be eligible as I wasn't employed by them in February?

mwarby

We could really do with some stickies here, there are many repeated questions and almost copy pasted answers, this makes information difficult to find.