Furlough is vastly less than 80% of wages for agency workers

NickyDietrich

Hi, 
I'm on the job retention scheme, but I'm furloughed by two different PAYE departments. The first one is an agency. They furloughed me and I received my first payment about 2 weeks ago. My furlough payment was drastically less than 80% of my wages because a month's pay was averaged out over 9 weeks. This 9 weeks was the total amount of the furloughed period from the date I started working for the agency i.e. I started work at the end of January, and my furlough pay was averaged out over the whole period of February to March. This gave them a day rate for me which was vastly less than 80% and then calculated 80% of that, and then took tax and national insurance. This left me with £480 a month to live on. This is less than 25% of my wages. I earn between £120 and £130 a day. They suggested that I apply to the other PAYE department which is an umbrella company. The legislation for umbrella companies has only just been approved but I've just received confirmation that the method of calculation is different from the other agency. One month's pay will be averaged out over 13 weeks. Is it correct that the method of calculation of furlough has changed from the amount of time worked to the amount of time on the books? This drastically reduces money for agency workers who are working across multiple agencies. For example I might be on the books for 6 months but only do 1 month of work for a particular agency. If this is the case across multiple agencies then I am being unfairly penalized. The original calculation was time worked for the agency averaged out over the furlough period.  Is it correct that the government take tax and national insurance from pitiful sums of money? Bearing in mind I'm unlikely to reach the tax threshold of £12,000 this year? I thought the furlough payments were exempt from tax deductions...

Also the government has declared that secondary school will not reopen until September. However, agency teachers have only been furloughed until 17th July 2020. This is the last day of the school term. This means agency workers would not receive furlough for August. As mentioned before I get paid enough so that I can save for being financially independent during the holidays. This isn't possible on £480 a month. Agency teachers will not be able to work until September 2020. Why aren't we furloughed until then?

theoretica

Dividing by the time on the books looks fair and right to me - because you get to be furloughed from more than one agency.  If you were able to claim 80% of your working weekly rate from each of several agencies you would be paid several times over.

poppy12345

Furlough is taxable income.

Have the Government announced the schools will not reopen until September? That's the first i've heard of that, unless the announcement was made in the last couple of hours.

pleasedelete

Supply staff on agency contracts are not typically paid doing the school holidays. The daily supply rate includes a holiday entitlement amount. Were you paid last August?

Timmy321

I work for an agency, which deploys me to a government funded college. I have been told 'for legal reasons', I am not entitled to the furlough scheme.  I have also been told I have no job now, I teach unemployed people! . Could this be correct, or are they just not applying for it? 

[Deleted User]

Timmy321 said:

I work for an agency, which deploys me to a government funded college. I have been told 'for legal reasons', I am not entitled to the furlough scheme.  I have also been told I have no job now, I teach unemployed people! . Could this be correct, or are they just not applying for it? 

Certain organisations are unable to furlough people as they are ineligible for CJRS, in your case I believe it will come down to being government funding, the NHS and government departments, organisations owned by or majority funded by the government are unable to claim.
To complicate matters it depends who your employer is (eg who actually pays you), if it is the government funded college then they can not claim. If you are employed by the agency then they can claim for CRJS, however many agencies are choosing not to do so for various reasons. 

Jeremy535897

Timmy321 said:

I work for an agency, which deploys me to a government funded college. I have been told 'for legal reasons', I am not entitled to the furlough scheme.  I have also been told I have no job now, I teach unemployed people! . Could this be correct, or are they just not applying for it? 

Employers funded by government are not expected to claim under CJRS.

superbigal

Jeremy535897 said:

Timmy321 said:

I work for an agency, which deploys me to a government funded college. I have been told 'for legal reasons', I am not entitled to the furlough scheme.  I have also been told I have no job now, I teach unemployed people! . Could this be correct, or are they just not applying for it? 

Employers funded by government are not expected to claim under CJRS.

If a %age of the "revenue" is from outwith the Govt then proportional Furlough applications are fair.
Very common in mixed private/nhs dental practices as an example.