Agency work furlough hurdles

PhilGatley

Hello all. Maybe someone could give me a pathway on my situation. 

I am a cover teacher and I am currently registered with 4 agencies to normally get a full school year’s worth of work. I am obviously on furlough or not receiving work as there is no one working in schools on agencies. I am currently coordinating myself through the furlough processes with these agencies and come up with a bit of a problem one way or another with them. I have one which is happily paying me 80% furlough and have been doing that since the first week of closure, I have one which has committed and promised that they will get the contract amendments and furlough letters sorted this week and back date the payments to the 23rd March (the first Monday after closures) which is great news too. One of them though have denied any furlough payments (apparently I can earn more on UC, yet my UC brings zero in each month other than August) and the other agency have forced me and the other workers to agree to be furloughed from 13th April, loosing us 2 weeks of wages (accounting for Easter holidays break in that) and will not back date any payments, even though the government have clearly stated it can be back dated. This agency had also had my last day (Friday 20th) cancelled on me, loosing another days worth of work too. Nothing will be done and they will not respond to any communication I have done with them when challenging these issues. 

Do I have any rights or anything I can do to get them to or encourage them to back date these payments? 

And on the other agency, does this mean that, as part of the contract agreement, they have to actively search for work for me, even though there is not any available as they will not furlough me? 

Thank you all in advance for your responses. 

PhilGatley

A few things I forgot to mention.
1. Is about the agency that will not roll back the furlough, they first discussed by email their intentions of furloughing their agency staff on the 30th March, stating that they needed clarity on how to and how it works (which is understandable, cannot dispute that), with that contact i was on the understanding that they would be looking in to backdating to a similar date for the furlough, as they have given interest in doing so. 

2. I know there is no “rights” as an employee to expect it, that was the wrong word and should have proofed the post first!
3. I really do have difficulties with universal credit, a lot of the credit support I need and ask for rarely comes through for them, I have to repeatedly appeal each statement to get a more accurate payment, I often do not get any payment from them, I tend not to be in demand for the payments as they make no difference, I appeal them as the information is quite often incorrect and I am still can’t understand why these mistakes keep happening. 

poppy12345

It's entirely the decision of your employer whether they chose to furlough you and they are not obliged to do this.

For Universal Credit, how much you received each month will depend on your earnings during your assessment period. The more you earn, the less UC you're entitled to. If you have no dependent children then you won't have a work allowance, which means earnings will reduce your UC by 63% for everything you earn. A benefits calculator will tell you what you're entitled to.

https://www.entitledto.co.uk/

PhilGatley

Thank you for your reply. Although, I have already addressed the universal credit situation in the post, so using the site will not generate any extra answers to the questions I ask. 

I am also fully aware it is up to the choice of the employer whether or not they furlough me, as my question actually was can I do anything about them not back dating the furlough payment even though they have discussed and informed us weeks before that their intentions was to furlough the workforce. 

Galloglass

If you are considered an employee then there is a grievance process that will be available to you. Whether there is a virus or not, normal rules apply. So if you think you were underpaid, you would take it up with the company through their procedures and then talk to ACAS. 

ACAS will be able to give you insight if this site doesn't.