Exactly as the title says - a client with 8 employees has had two employees on furlough since March, one of whom at least is likely to be made redundant at the end of July.
They have now sent me payroll info for May and told me they have taken on a teen family member as temp 25hrs pw. Ignoring the work permit that I doubt is in place etc surely you can't have someone on furlough and then hire a temp.
Well maybe you can do that legally, but more to the point surely you can't have staff on furlough, hire a summer temp and then expect to make a CJRS claim for the furloughed people?
I haven't yet been back to the client but from what I know of the business, staff members furloughed and the teen involved, I would be shocked if one of the trained furloughed staff couldn't do whatever the untrained teen is there to do.
Has anyone else come across this?? I am off to go through the rules in detail but surely it can't be right.
Replies (13)
Please login or register to join the discussion.
depends on what the furloughed worker did/does and what the teen is hired to do> A bigger question is if the teen takes over the furloughed worker's job when the latter is made redundant.
I think this will come up for lots of discussions in the future should HMRC ever query claims. It is a job retention scheme, but maybe different skills etc -
It is neither your job nor your duty to police the scheme. Your duty is to the client. The rules are clear; the client is entitled to furlough his employees. He is also entitled to hire new employees. Questions around future redundancy and employee rights are not accounting matters and (in most cases) are not covered by an accountant's PII, so we should not advise.
I think that this situation sounds abusive and doesn't fit within the spirit of the scheme. Whether HMRC would be able to prove such and seek repayment is another matter.
I think that this situation sounds abusive and doesn't fit within the spirit of the scheme. Whether HMRC would be able to prove such and seek repayment is another matter.
Do they have to prove it ?
Surely they issue an assessment, the taxpayer can appeal against it but the burden of proof is on the appellant.
I dunno - decent computer analysis should flag up cases like this quite easily.
I had a similar climb-down from a client wanting to furlough his teenaged son, an existing p/t employee, and claim 80% of his wages. The risk to reward ratio was poor, not least because the client already sails close to the wind on other matters and he and his wife already qualified for the full £2.5k whack. Sometimes I think clients just need someone to make the decision for them, otherwise their greedy natures can get the better of them. Well done for sticking to your guns!
Luke, I wonder whether your interpretation would have been the same had your incoming part-timer been an unconnected employee? Seems to me that in that scenario there would be no obvious benefit to an employer in having a furloughed employee costing nothing and a replacement costing full whack versus an unfurloughed employee costing full whack (all other things being equal). Given which I guess it must have been the family connection that bothered you sufficiently to cause your protestation. Aren't people greedy!?