Rejoining a former company to claim new Furlough

Lucky_Phil_2

Hi All,

I started a 6 month contract in Feb, this was through a recruitment consultancy. One month into it I was put into lockdown and then the company put me into Furlough for 2 months. The contract was extended 2 months at no cost to the employer whatsoever (I have had this confirmed to me). My last official day was 31 October.

Unfortunately the current Furlough scheme commenced after I had left the company. I immediately called HR and asked them if there was any chance that I could rejoin the company due to this new announcement. I even said I would decline the pension scheme and any cost to the company could be directly taken from my wage. I have received a stock response by email from HR saying that "we have discussed this internally and this is the not the purpose of the Furlough scheme so the company won't do this."

Any other action I can take? I was on very good terms with all the staff there and have the numbers for FD etc. Recruitment agency have declined to assist me with this.

TIA

Phil

bradders1983

Nope, thats it. They dont have to rehire you.

MattMattMattUK

There is a cost to the employer and they can not legally deduct that cost from your pay so your offer was not a viable one from their point of view.

They are under no obligation to rehire you to place you on furlough, the point of the CJRS is to retain jobs, not to function as an enhanced benefits system, although that is how some are using it.

unholyangel

I believe under the scheme rules, your employer would have to extend the contract before it ended, to be eligible to reclaim any costs for you under cjrs.

Jeremy535897

"2.4 Employees re-employed by their employer

Employees that were employed and on the payroll on 23 September 2020 who were made redundant or stopped working for their employer afterwards can be re-employed and claimed for. The employer must have made a PAYE Real Time Information (RTI) submission to HMRC from 20 March 2020 to 23 September 2020, notifying a payment of earnings for those employees.

Similarly, an employee who was on a fixed term contract, on payroll on 23 September, and that contract expired after 23 September can be re-employed and claimed for, provided that the other eligibility criteria are met."

From https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/extension-to-the-coronavirus-job-retention-scheme/extension-of-the-coronavirus-job-retention-scheme

Mrsn

Ex employers aren’t going to be as generous this time round. Add to the fact it was via an agency and they don’t wish to have any involvement there is no further action you can take.

What I would suggest is having a look at the benefit entitlement calculators such as entitled to or turn2us to see if you are eligible for any benefits to help you financially going forward.