Furlough Loophole...

AdamDoddy

Hi, 
My Girlfriend was previously self employed and started a new full time job the week lockdown began. As such the company shut down operations and although they weren't able to furlough her, due to being after the deadline, did very kindly pay 40% of her salary to help keep her going. Now she is back at work but still only working minimal hours which equates to roughly 40% salary still, and the company aren't able to give an idea of when they will be back to full operating capacity.  She was able to make use of the SEISS grant but we wondered if there was any furlough like help available to people who aren't eligible for the full furlough scheme going forward? 
Thanks in advance, 
A

bradders1983

Universal Credit.

Jeremy535897

AdamDoddy said:

Hi, 
My Girlfriend was previously self employed and started a new full time job the week lockdown began. As such the company shut down operations and although they weren't able to furlough her, due to being after the deadline, did very kindly pay 40% of her salary to help keep her going. Now she is back at work but still only working minimal hours which equates to roughly 40% salary still, and the company aren't able to give an idea of when they will be back to full operating capacity.  She was able to make use of the SEISS grant but we wondered if there was any furlough like help available to people who aren't eligible for the full furlough scheme going forward? 
Thanks in advance, 
A

If your girlfriend ceased to be self employed in March 2020, she did not qualify for SEISS.

poppy12345

Jeremy535897 said:

AdamDoddy said:

 we wondered if there was any furlough like help available to people who aren't eligible for the full furlough scheme going forward? 
Thanks in advance, 
A

If your girlfriend ceased to be self employed in March 2020, she did not qualify for SEISS.

No, because she wasn't previously furloughed. The cut off date for this was 10th June.

Jeremy535897

poppy12345 said:

Jeremy535897 said:

AdamDoddy said:

 we wondered if there was any furlough like help available to people who aren't eligible for the full furlough scheme going forward? 
Thanks in advance, 
A

If your girlfriend ceased to be self employed in March 2020, she did not qualify for SEISS.

No, because she wasn't previously furloughed. The cut off date for this was 10th June.

True, although it isn't to do with 10 June (she wasn't on the payroll by 19 March). My point was that she didn't qualify for SEISS either, which OP said she claimed, if she did not intend to continue to trade in 2020/21.

Grumpy_chap

Looks like this SEISS grant was claimed in error and should be repaid. 
The eligibility criteria include "still trading and intend to continue to trade".  That is failed if the self-employment ceased the week lockdown began to go into employed work.  Even if the qualifying date for "still trading" was satisfied (as I am not sure when that is assessed), the "intend to continue to trade" is knowingly not applicable as the claimant had gone far down the path of bringing the sole trader business to an end and gaining alternative employment.
Whatever the short-term impacts, it is not worth having the SEISS grant at the risk of the long-term impacts of a fraud marker or prosecution.