Furlough following resignation

MoneySavingDJ84

I was furloughed since March from a part time job working for the home office on behalf on an agency. In late september I was asked to go back to work in the office by the agency. Due to the fact some of my family fall under the vulnerable category (and there was a lot of a lot of the uncertainty at the time) I didn't think it was sensible and safe thing to do. I raised this with the agency at the time and their response was I could either return to work or resign my post. I respectfully and reluctantly resigned my post receiving my final payment on the 2nd of October.

Since then, the uncertainty has developed into a 2nd full national lockdown. So my concerns were well founded.
Is there any point in contacting my former employer to discuss this with regards to the advice I was given?

Will I able to claim from the furlough scheme taking that into consideration? 

Jeremy535897

Employees don't claim anything. Their employers claim. You would have to persuade them to rehire you and furlough you.

Thrugelmir

wshepherd84 said:

Is there any point in contacting my former employer to discuss this with regards to the advice I was given?

You were given the two available options. You chose to resign.  That was your decision. 

gary83

It’s only going to cost you the price of a phone call to ask. but you wouldn’t be able to claim furlough, the agency could choose to claim on your behalf, you may or may not be eligible depending on whether the dates of your RTI submission matched the cut off dates 
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/furlough-scheme-extended-and-further-economic-support-announced

if you were eligible then frankly you’d also be relying on the goodwill and generosity of the agency who’d be under no obligation to do it, it would cost them time and money to administer the scheme for you and also you’d potentially continue to earn holiday time. It can’t hurt to ask but seeing as you haven’t worked for them since March & effectively refused to go back to work in late September don’t be too shocked if they say no.

bradders1983

wshepherd84 said:

Since then, the uncertainty has developed into a 2nd full national lockdown. So my concerns were well founded.

Well no, not really. Did you even ask or check what adjustments the office had made?

As already said dont be surprised if they dont want to help, you tossed them off a month ago. In this case you may not even have been on the payroll come the reference date which as far as I am aware hasnt been made public yet.

MoneySavingDJ84

Thrugelmir said:

wshepherd84 said:

Is there any point in contacting my former employer to discuss this with regards to the advice I was given?

You were given the two available options. You chose to resign.  That was your decision. 

My point is that I had no choice, they knew the position I was in. 

Thrugelmir

Whatever they thought. It was your decision.  They gave you a choice. 

MoneySavingDJ84

bradders1983 said:

wshepherd84 said:

Since then, the uncertainty has developed into a 2nd full national lockdown. So my concerns were well founded.

Well no, not really. Did you even ask or check what adjustments the office had made?

Yes 

bradders1983

Were those adjustments in line with published guidance?

Its a shame this pandemic had forced healthy 36 year olds like yourself onto the scrapheap but if they had made the required changed, they need do no more. In any case, we digress.

unforeseen

Your position is immaterial. They gave you the options that they would give anybody who was baulking at returning after 6 months on furlough. You were wanted back to do some work so even if furlough was still running then it would be the same choice.

Just because there were people in your family (were they in your household) who you considered vulnerable is no reason to effectively refuse to go back. The measures to deal with that have been posted on these forums ad nauseam since the beginning of the original lockdown and are  also available on the gov site and they work. 
In fact for this lockdown they aren't being as forceful about the CEV group self-isolating as they were on the original. 

gary83

bradders1983 said:

wshepherd84 said:

Since then, the uncertainty has developed into a 2nd full national lockdown. So my concerns were well founded.

Well no, not really. Did you even ask or check what adjustments the office had made?

As already said dont be surprised if they dont want to help, you tossed them off a month ago. In this case you may not even have been on the payroll come the reference date which as far as I am aware hasnt been made public yet.

the deadline has been made public, There’s a date on the gov.uk document I linked above:

• To be eligible to be claimed for under this extension, employees must be on an employer’s PAYE payroll by 23:59 30th October 2020. This means a Real Time Information (RTI) submission notifying payment for that employee to HMRC must have been made on or before 30th October 2020.