Furlough pay based on hours?

LouiseP2000

I have been working for my employer since January 2020 so when furloughed my pay was worked out from hours worked since I started in January through to when I was put on furlough In April 2020. At the time I was only working 9-15 hours (due to having too many staff members for the amount of shifts available) a week therefore my furlough was worked out based on these hours. Since going back to work in July up until now I have been able to work a lot more, working between 18-30 hours a week when the second lockdown happened I was furloughed again and was being paid the same amount of furlough pay for the hours worked between Jan 2020 and April 2020 despite coming back to work in July 2020 to August 2020 and doing way more hours than before is this right? Is there anything I can do? I’ve worked all these hours and my furlough again in lockdown 3 is being based on the hours worked Jan-April just wondering if anyone can advise 

Jeremy535897

If you were eligible to be furloughed in April, the same method of calculation is used now, unfortunately. Are you on a zero hours contract?

LouiseP2000

@Jeremy535897 No I’m on a hours based contract but it’s only 5 hours a week  

Grumpy_chap

Unfortunately, as Jeremy said, the same basis to calculate furlough now as it was in April for employees in the same employment.  That means no consideration of pay rises or changes in hours etc.

To put a positive spin on this, though, the basis used in April was on averaged pay (9-15 hours) and could have been just on basic hours (5).  Maybe the way to look at the increased hours July until now is as a "bonus" and with the positivity that you will be able to return to high number of hours once lockdown ends, rather than just being back at basic 5 hours.  Obviously, that does not help in the immediate term.

Depending what the furlough payments work out to, any savings you have, or other household income, you may be eligible for UC.  I assume that is something you would have looked into during the summer if appropriate.

Jeremy535897

LouiseP2000 said:

@Jeremy535897 No I’m on a hours based contract but it’s only 5 hours a week  

At least your furlough is based on a better number than that.