Variable income, incorrect furlough pay calculation

blondie1984

I have been employed and worked variable hours for several years.  Fortunately my employer has furloughed me, however when I received my pay it was significantly lower than 80% of my average 2019-20 earnings.  When I queried this, my employer replied that it was calculated using average salaries, not including March, but did not provide any further information about why the amount was lower than it should have been.  Is there anything I can do in this situation?  Many thanks in advance for any advice.

Caz3121

you can view the calculator here - https://www.gov.uk/guidance/work-out-80-of-your-employees-wages-to-claim-through-the-coronavirus-job-retention-scheme
there is a section on - 

Employees whose pay varies and were employed from 6 April 2019

unholyangel

Be aware that "employees whose pay varies" is not actually all employees whose pay might vary. The only place variable pay is mentioned is the guidance. The directions only make provision for "fixed rate employees" and then anyone who isn't a fixed rate employee. 

You are fixed rate if (paraphrasing so not including all conditions) your contract specifies basic hours, your contract sets remuneration for those basic hours (a salary), you're not entitled to remuneration in respect of those basic hours other than the specified salary, the basic hours do not vary in your contract (perhaps working FT during summer and PT during winter) and you're entitled to be paid the same amount regardless of actual days/hours worked in that period - so for example 30 hours a week mon-fri but paid monthly, you wouldn't get paid for 20 days in february and 22 in march (how many working days there would be in each of those months for someone mon-fri), you'd get paid the same for both months. 

madmackem

Caz3121 said:

you can view the calculator here - https://www.gov.uk/guidance/work-out-80-of-your-employees-wages-to-claim-through-the-coronavirus-job-retention-scheme
there is a section on - 

Employees whose pay varies and were employed from 6 April 2019

After a lot of searching on here, I think that is probably the most useful link I have found, Thank you!