Previous employer refuses to furlough. No income! Help!

geoff258

 

My neighbour is one of the poor sods who have fallen through the cracks in the Governments Furlough/Job retention scheme. She left her children’s nursery job on the 27th March and had a new job due to start on the 6th April. Of course the new employer now can't give her a start date, and the previous employer is refusing to rehire and furlough her. Until such time as something is done to fix this glaring flaw in the scheme (Martin and co. please help!) her only possible option of any income is Universal Credit. Unfortunately, because her dad gave her some money intended for a deposit on a flat purchase, she has over £16000 in the bank.

Until this unfair furlough system is fixed or she can start her new job, can she return this money to her dad so her savings are below £16k and then claim UC so she at least has some small income?

Thanks in advance for any help.

gary83

she can’t just give away or transfer her savings into her dads name to get below the £16,000 to qualify, that’s deprivation of capital, if it was that easy everyone would do it!

when did her dad give her the money? Is she in the process of buying a house or is this just at some point she’d like to spend the money on that?

there is a process of getting some capital discounted for Universal Credit, for instance if you’d just sold one house and we’re intending to buy another shortly. You can’t just say you’d rather get Universal Credit & leave the money in the bank because you’d like to spend it on a house in the future. the government expects you to support yourself if you’re able with the cash you have in the bank before they start topping up your savings with Universal Credit.

sharpe106

I think in this case she is just unlucky but at least has enough money to pays the bills for the next few months until her new job starts.

geoff258

She has had the money for a while but it  seems grossly unfair to have to live on money that was gifted to set up their daughters future life, all because the governments system has left her high and dry. Meanwhile there are far less deserving people furloughed and coining £7500 for 3 months sunning themselves in the garden, Does that seem fair?

gary83

A lot of this isn’t fair. However benefits are supposed to be for the needy, a safety net when you need them most, the £16,000 savings limit is a way of triage to try and make sure the money goes to those that need it most. Would it be fair on the taxpayers, a lot of whom don’t have over £16,000  sat in the bank to pay out to her because she wants to save her cash for a future life? The futures here, The rainy day has arrived now.

Trying to look for a silver lining, as a result of Corona virus house prices could drop, at least then she could benefit from that and not suffer from negative equity if she’d already bought.

geoff258

So do people with over £16000 in the bank not get any furlough payment until it's reduced to under that figure?

poppy12345

geoff258 said:

So do people with over £16000 in the bank not get any furlough payment until it's reduced to under that figure?

Furlough has nothing to do with savings.

poppy12345

If she's paid enough NI contributions in tax years April 2017 to March 2019 then she'll be able to claim New style JSA. Over 25's receive £74.35 per week for up to 26 weeks.

gary83

No, but furlough is an entirely different unprecedented scheme, it was unimaginable a couple of months ago. it was drawn up on the back of an envelope & ministers appeared to keep going to press conferences & social media and telling people the goalposts have changed. it’s a hastily enacted scheme that’s been implemented badly and now hardly resembles what it’s original intention was, there’s too many loopholes, it’s only temporary and the chancellor has admitted he has no idea how much it’ll cost. There’s a reason government legislation normally takes so long to write up, you’d like to think they don’t normally miss so many people out or get it so badly wrong, but it was never intended to be a benefits scheme. 

In a few months time hopefully furlough will have been forgotten (other than the increase of tax we’re all going to have to pay to cover it) Universal credit will still be around, as a safety net but the government will still expect those that have the savings in the bank to pay for themselves to take care of themselves .

geoff258

Exactly, So someone could have millions in the bank and still £2500 pm while being furloughed. Meanwhile my neighbour gets nothing because she has over £16000. despite being a hardworking person on a lowish income..

poppy12345

geoff258 said:

Exactly, So someone could have millions in the bank and still £2500 pm while being furloughed. Meanwhile my neighbour gets nothing because she has over £16000. despite being a hardworking person on a lowish income..

Furlough and a means tested benefit are 2 completely different things. Her savings prevent her from claiming all means tested benefits and she should look at claiming New style JSA. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/new-style-jobseekers-allowance