Furlough

cuccii

Hi i wonder if anyone can help, my husband is currently on furlough (80%) he is in construction and has been advised he will return on 11may, but my husband is on high risk and received a letter to say to self isolate for 12 weeks which will bring him to the middle of June (i think) , they say if he does not return to work he will only receive government sick pay is this correct or can they keep him on furlough (80%) for the remainder of the weeks. Thank you

poppy12345

SSP is what he would be entitled to but if his employer wants to keep him on furlough then they can do this.

gary83

the company are correct, a letter doesn’t automatically entitle you to remain on furlough if the company decides they have work for you to do and they need you to return. 

cuccii

Thank you, so I’m assuming its at the discretion of the company

poppy12345

cuccii said:

Thank you, so I’m assuming its at the discretion of the company

Yes.

Mrsn

Very much so, you’d be best to assume it’ll be SSP and then anything else would be a bonus.

calcotti

poppy12345 said:

SSP is what he would be entitled to but if his employer wants to keep him on furlough then they can do this.

There is some confusion around that discussed at length at Q19 of this House of Commons briefing https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-8880/?utm_source=HOC+Library+-+Research+alerts&utm_campaign=920c172683-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_04_22_08_00&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_a9da1c9b17-920c172683-102519765&mc_cid=920c172683&mc_eid=896f3be410

rafscleaningservice

I was just wondering, why if we are directors in limited company (carpet cleaners, just me and my wife, obviously we do the job, no more employees) we're not allowed to work if we've decided to  use a furlough scheme, when the self employed will still get similar support and they're allowed to work for their own company? My apologies for jumping on your post, just finding that a  little bit unfair? 

Grumpy_chap

@rafscleaningservice - sometimes life is unfair, or seems it.

There are other reasons in the long term to make the decision between self-employed or Ltd company.  Once coronavirus is all over those normal reasons will all be back as normal - this is just a very extreme circumstance that we should not make long term decisions on.

Jeremy535897

rafscleaningservice said:

I was just wondering, why if we are directors in limited company (carpet cleaners, just me and my wife, obviously we do the job, no more employees) we're not allowed to work if we've decided to  use a furlough scheme, when the self employed will still get similar support and they're allowed to work for their own company? My apologies for jumping on your post, just finding that a  little bit unfair? 

SEISS would be more appropriate in these circumstances , but they said it was too difficult to do. I never understood why. Universal credit looks through such companies.