Furlough Rejected - Desperate help needed

kmwaugh

Hi,

I hope someone out there can help as this is now a desperate time for us!!

My wife and I started full time work as a live in couple for a pub in the middle of Feb 2020. We are salaried and paid weekly and have 4 weeks of payslips before the lock down happened and we were forced to close the pub. Our employer said he would furlough us so we thought everything was going to be okay. The issue arises when the accountant filed the RTI to HMRC on the 22nd March, which was 3 days late, and because of this HMRC have refused to furlough us. This has been appealed and again came back as a refusal. The frustrating part of this is that we have 4 payslips prior to the scheme starting and HMRC have confirmed that they can see we were going through the PAYE system from Feb but we are still not eligible.

We have had conflicting info from HMRC with some staff saying we should be furloughed and some saying that we can't. We have now gone 6 weeks without pay and are now being told by our employer we should sign up for Universal Credit. I could understand if we were paid monthly and had no record of payments, but the fact we are paid weekly and have a record with HMRC seems to count for anything.

Many thanks

poppy12345

As the RTI was sent until 22nd March then your employer won't be able to furlough you.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/furlough-scheme-cut-off-date-extended-to-19-march

Providing you don't have savings/capital of more than £16,000 then look at claiming Universal Credit. A claim for this will also end any tax credits you may already be claiming.

bradders1983

Your employer is unwittingly to blame for not sending through the RTI to HMRC before the 19th March.  Sadly there is nothing else you can do except sign up for UC.

kmwaugh

Seems really unfair for people making a legitimate claim

bradders1983

kmwaugh said:

Seems really unfair for people making a legitimate claim

Indeed. But imagine if the government didnt have a cutoff. The cutoff was the day before the scheme was announced I believe. If there wasnt one, there would be a shedload of unscrupulous employers whacking their brothers, sisters, friends etc... on their payroll to get some free Government money.