Paid furlough wages but made to work

manono

Hello,
can anyone offer me some advice please?

My husband is a heating engineer and works for a small company (ltd). His boss is currently paying him furloughed wages, but he is making them work on his house renovations.  

My husband has questioned why they are only being paid furloughed wage, but his boss stated that he is allowed to make them work as it’s his property. 

Doesn’t sound right to me.

Grumpy_chap

Ignoring flexible furlough, not allowed to work for the company while furloughed.  Is your husband just doing the work on the house as a mate?

manono

Grumpy_chap said:

Ignoring flexible furlough, not allowed to work for the company while furloughed.  Is your husband just doing the work on the house as a mate?

His boss just said that he’s allowed to make them work at his home and still pay them furlough. All a bit weird. If you’re on furlough, surely he shouldn’t be doing work for him? And not even paid the right amount.

Grumpy_chap

He is not working for the company.  He is working for the individual.

bradders1983

In which case the individual should also be paying him.

manono

Yeah that’s what I thought. Ridiculous situation. 

bradders1983

Thing is, he could moan about it but would he have a job if he did?

Jeremy535897

Grumpy_chap said:

He is not working for the company.  He is working for the individual.

Doesn't matter. On furlough, you cannot work for the employer or a person connected with the employer.  See para 8.3(b) of
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/895778/Further_Treasury_Direction_made_on_25_June_2020_under_Sections_71_and_76_of_the_Coronavirus_Act_2020.pdf 

In this case, the CJRS Treasury Direction (para 41.4) states you look at section 993 ITA 2007. Subsection 6 says:

"(6)A company is connected with another person (“A”) if—

(a)A has control of the company, or

(b)A together with persons connected with A have control of the company."

If the boss controls the company, he is in breach of the furlough rules.

Grumpy_chap

Thanks Jeremy, that is entirely correct and I'd forgotten the "associated person" part.
Still does not really help the OP as if they complain will likely be no job.
Not sure why the construction company are still on furlough at all as all the companies near us seem really busy.

macman

He could of course quite legally 'volunteer' to 'help his boss with some work on his house' without pay. Which I'm sure is the way his boss would explain it if he was reported. 
If he is on 'furlough wages', then the boss is paying him nothing: the taxpayer is funding his furlough, and funding all the free labour being carried out at the house. A sickeningly cynical misuse of the system, but he'll probably get away with it, sadly

unholyangel

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-revenue-customs/contact/report-fraud-to-hmrc