Furlough to redundancy - I want to leave

lazer-zxr

Hello forumites,
I want to leave my job, to go to another job.
I was asked to authorise 3 weeks of furlough previously, which I have done, that period ends next week. We will then be asked to authorise another 4 weeks of furlough.
As I want to leave the company, could I refuse furlough, and then be left either having to work my notice, or receiving statutory redundancy (both of which are more financially rewarding than a month of furlough)?

Thanks in advance for any comments.

Mrsn

You need to hand in your notice as you would do normally.... what they do after that point is their decision, 

lazer-zxr

Before handing my notice in though ..... Could I not refuse the furlough and state a preference for redundancy?

Dox

lazer-zxr said:

Before handing my notice in though ..... Could I not refuse the furlough and state a preference for redundancy?

You can 'state' anything you like - but your job isn't redundant, so redundancy pay won't be on offer.

lazer-zxr

Apologies, maybe I'm not explaining myself clearly enough. My job is not there at the moment, hence me being furloughed. Therefore if I refuse to be furloughed, the alternative must be redundancy. I have checked the wording of my previous furlough agreement (which expires next week) which reads:
"The consequences of not agreeing to this the week period of furlough maybe be statutory redundancy."

vitaweat

lazer-zxr said:

Apologies, maybe I'm not explaining myself clearly enough. My job is not there at the moment, hence me being furloughed. Therefore if I refuse to be furloughed, the alternative must be redundancy. I have checked the wording of my previous furlough agreement (which expires next week) which reads:
"The consequences of not agreeing to this the week period of furlough maybe be statutory redundancy."

It says may be not must be.  If they know you want to leave, why would they give you money to leave?

lazer-zxr

Because redundancy would cost them less than honouring my contact and posting my salary for the notice period.

TELLIT01

If you receive less by taking redundancy than by accepting furlough for the notice period, what is the reason for wanting redundancy?  Do you have another job to go to which has an immediate start?

lazer-zxr

Hi.
Yes I have a job I can go to.
Furlough would give me £2500 per month. Redundancy would give me £7k. Working my notice would give me £4k X 3 months.

Thanks to those that have read and replied so far.

JReacher1

if you’ve got another job lined up why don’t you just discuss a reduced notice period with your current employer?

I don’t see the reason behind prolonging your stay at your current employer if everyone agrees you can start at your new job earlier. 

lazer-zxr

I think I want to engineer this to get a tax free lump sum redundancy. I can refuse furlough, so that option goes away. There is no work for me at my current employer .... So the option in their eyes is paying my notice, or paying redundancy. The cheapest option for them is redundancy, which is what I want.