Mine have furloughed most of us on the commercial side and are topping up wages as necessary to ensure that everyone gets the full 80% - i.e. the night mechanics who are on £41k before overtime which puts them above government cap.
I’m getting 80% of last month’s wage, which is great because I actually did some overtime for a change. 
No one is going to get more than £2.5k a month or £577 a week from the government
peirre:
No one is going to get more than £2.5k a month or £577 a week from the government
That amount, or even 80% of that amount - would have been more than satisfactory for being stood down, and on gardening leave.
I’d rather have that amount than these meagre sums being spoken of for things like Tax Credits & other so-called “means tested benefits” - which all too often, end up merely being “loans that have to be re-paid when one gets one’s next job” rather than actual full-time income designed to tide you over UNTIL you get that next job, and then ongoing should that job be a fraction of the income of the outgoing last one…
The hole in the system it seems - is that employers get to claim this furlough grant from the government, but those same employers then decide which of their staff qualify to get it…
Thus, the moral hazard is that you claim based on you having say, 1000 staff, let a few leave through “Natural wastage”, give a few others no work until they leave of their own accord - but don’t actually sack anyone, so the grant has been applied for with the best of rule-obeying intent… Rules that are easy peasy for even a rookie accountant to drive a coach and horses through, as it turns out…
I doubt by this point if there are ANY agencies that are paying furlough money at this time, so I try not to take it too personally…
Thing is, if they are acting in this way - there won’t be any agencies left by Christmas, because they will have lost the goodwill and trust of their staff, who were rather hoping that they would apply for the grants on their behalf, pay the 80% over, or at least negotiate a slightly lower amount that they could afford, rather than just job-lot us all on zippo, except those few staff who are top of the pecking order for what few shifts remain to be allocated…
Imagine the future prospective sign-ups for agencies who’ll go “If you have no work for me immediately, I ain’t signing up” or "Unpaid assessments? - No thanks. I’ll apply direct in future."
It is likely to prove impossible for agencies to ever build up this large “resouvoir” of drivers - ever again, like they used to do…
Time to end this “Culture of Lies”.
If ‘lies’ actually turned out to define said agency, then it is clearly time to end that agency.
If that is ALL of them in due course - then so be it. 
Tailschwing:
Mine have furloughed most of us on the commercial side and are topping up wages as necessary to ensure that everyone gets the full 80% - i.e. the night mechanics who are on £41k before overtime which puts them above government cap.I’m getting 80% of last month’s wage, which is great because I actually did some overtime for a change.
Good for you. At least actual direct employers seem to have started to deliver the goods through this portal that started this week… 
You full timers are the proverbial “Diesel” with agency bods like myself now being the “Unrefined, Crude” which this week saw people being paid to take off the hands of the producers…
Oh how the world has changed!
The PAYE agency guys where I work (Staffline I believe) are weekly paid and have been paid for both weeks that they’ve been furloughed. I have no idea what they’ve been paid as it’s none of my business, suffice to say they’re happy with it.
Sorry if that doesn’t fit with your narrative.
The maximum 80% anyone will get is £2000, which is 80% of £2500, many were thinking it was 80% of what they earned to a maximum of £2500.
the maoster:
The PAYE agency guys where I work (Staffline I believe) are weekly paid and have been paid for both weeks that they’ve been furloughed. I have no idea what they’ve been paid as it’s none of my business, suffice to say they’re happy with it.Sorry if that doesn’t fit with your narrative.
If it doesn’t fit with my narrative, you are confirming that I’ve been singled out, since I’ve received jack to date for three weeks now.
Yes, I would be happy with some, any payments of furlough money - but no dice.
They won’t even talk to me about it, so if you’re confirming to me that others are indeed getting paid, you are confirming my original narrative about selective payments being made - aren’t you?
Surely an employer should be paying everyone or no-one?
The qualifying criteria - should be “Has this person got work, or are they stood down”.
Nothing else.
If you’re fortunate enough to be getting work, then you’ll end up getting 100% of your earnings, whereas the maximum the stood down parties will get is 80%…
If you’re stood down and getting bugger all though?
THAT is my beef!! 
Washwipe:
The maximum 80% anyone will get is £2000, which is 80% of £2500.
You are incorrect, irrespective of anyone’s earnings the government will pay via the furlough scheme a max of £2500 per month or £577 per week gross, or 80% of the average of the previous years (or part year) earnings prior to the cut off date if it’s less than £2500/£577, so IF you previously grossed an average of £3125/£721.25 you’d get the max money allowed.
the maoster:
The PAYE agency guys where I work (Staffline I believe) are weekly paid and have been paid for both weeks that they’ve been furloughed. I have no idea what they’ve been paid as it’s none of my business, suffice to say they’re happy with it.
They’ve been paying me since W/C Monday 30th March
Sorry washwipe, you’re wrong, I’ve been furloughed for 4 weeks now and I’m getting £2400 per month, which is 80% of my average earnings, obviously it’s a bit less take home for me, as I don’t get my bonus nor my night out money, but £2400 for sitting in the house?, what’s not to like,?
Sapper
Accounts at our place are doing themselves out of £500 then, they’ve agreed to top up the difference for the time being.
Winseer:
the maoster:
The PAYE agency guys where I work (Staffline I believe) are weekly paid and have been paid for both weeks that they’ve been furloughed. I have no idea what they’ve been paid as it’s none of my business, suffice to say they’re happy with it.Sorry if that doesn’t fit with your narrative.
If it doesn’t fit with my narrative, you are confirming that I’ve been singled out, since I’ve received jack to date for three weeks now.
Yes, I would be happy with some, any payments of furlough money - but no dice.
They won’t even talk to me about it, so if you’re confirming to me that others are indeed getting paid, you are confirming my original narrative about selective payments being made - aren’t you?Surely an employer should be paying everyone or no-one?
The qualifying criteria - should be “Has this person got work, or are they stood down”.
Nothing else.If you’re fortunate enough to be getting work, then you’ll end up getting 100% of your earnings, whereas the maximum the stood down parties will get is 80%…
If you’re stood down and getting bugger all though?
THAT is my beef!!
Mate I don’t know what to say. I have no idea as to why you ain’t getting paid when others are. Unfair? Of course it is, but again I have no idea as to the why’s and wherefore 's
I’m agency too and although I drive for Tesco etc,my work has died a death. I’m getting one or two days a week. The trouble is, because I’m getting this amount, I don’t get furlough at all. Fancy that, I think the government has lied to us.
chooch:
I’m agency too and although I drive for Tesco etc,my work has died a death. I’m getting one or two days a week. The trouble is, because I’m getting this amount, I don’t get furlough at all. Fancy that, I think the government has lied to us.
There are so many factors that could effect the chances of you receiving furlough, are you Ltd Co or PAYE, what does you contract with the agency state about guaranteed hours and Swedish Derogation. IF you meet the criteria to be furloughed (ie: PAYE, guaranteed hours) why not ask them to furlough you so that others can get the chance to work the days you have been getting
peirre:
chooch:
I’m agency too and although I drive for Tesco etc,my work has died a death. I’m getting one or two days a week. The trouble is, because I’m getting this amount, I don’t get furlough at all. Fancy that, I think the government has lied to us.There are so many factors that could effect the chances of you receiving furlough, are you Ltd Co or PAYE, what does you contract with the agency state about guaranteed hours and Swedish Derogation. IF you meet the criteria to be furloughed (ie: PAYE, guaranteed hours) why not ask them to furlough you so that others can get the chance to work the days you have been getting
I’m paye and received no work at all. If I’d been given a shift or two per week, I probably would have then not qualified, but I guess there is so little work about at the moment, that the seniors have got those scant shifts allocated to them, which keeps them off furlough - and then I read on here that at least two bods at the same agency are in receipt of furlough money as of this week?
I think I’ll give them one more week to sort this, and my missing holiday pay out, because come May - I’m going to be talking to the DWP about some means-tested help, which should be forthcoming, since my income is as close to zero as it’s been for over a decade now. (When I first signed up with agencies in 2011, I didn’t get any work for the 3 weeks after Easter when I’d signed up at the beginning of April…)
I’d have to declare any furlough monies to the DWP of course IF they’ve been paid by that point, which would forfeit any DWP claim I might make. Getting “Nothing at all” - gives me a case until that point though. I’ll also be talking to ACAS in due course.
received my first furlough pay packet yesterday.over £500 down,but i’d done a bit of o/t the previous month,so not too bad.
Don’t rub it in because Winseer will be getting the hump
Winseer:
The legal way around “not paying me furlough” then - would be to put me back to work, minimum 20% of the hours I used to be doing - and they’d be turning a profit on that then, with or without furlough money paid to myself. I want any such offers in writing though…
The legal way around “not paying you furlough” is to not pay you furlough. Although it’s a bit ■■■■■■ of them they have no legal responsibility to pay you anything other than shifts worked, seeing as you’ve worked no shifts they need not pay you anything. I doubt they will claim furlough money if they don’t intend paying it as I reckon that would almost definitely be a prison sentence if proved to be intentional!
Likewise holiday pay. You can request your holiday pay (although notice as per contract must be given, which is probably best getting in writing) or hand in your notice and get your holiday pay in your final pay packet.
My agency has…
Called me this morning and informed me I will be furloughed for the foreseeable future.
I got put on furlough on Monday just gone from speaking to another driver who was put on it a couple of weeks back il be just under 200 quid a week down. Between doing the home schooling and catching up round the house il have enough to keep busy for the foreseeable but obviously want it over as quick as possible as it’s not going to do the country any good going on long term
manicpb:
Winseer:
The legal way around “not paying me furlough” then - would be to put me back to work, minimum 20% of the hours I used to be doing - and they’d be turning a profit on that then, with or without furlough money paid to myself. I want any such offers in writing though…The legal way around “not paying you furlough” is to not pay you furlough. Although it’s a bit [zb] of them they have no legal responsibility to pay you anything other than shifts worked, seeing as you’ve worked no shifts they need not pay you anything. I doubt they will claim furlough money if they don’t intend paying it as I reckon that would almost definitely be a prison sentence if proved to be intentional!
Likewise holiday pay. You can request your holiday pay (although notice as per contract must be given, which is probably best getting in writing) or hand in your notice and get your holiday pay in your final pay packet.
What I’ve been getting at here is that a firm had to make a decision to claim for all the staff on book or none of them.
How can you furlough some staff and not others otherwise?
There’s also the creative accounting possibility under sub-heading “moral hazard” where one agency with two or more offices that supplies a client with two or more depots…
You get the drivers of one side furloughed, and then back at work after only a single week off on the other side…
The ones displaced at the otherside - will then be the ones like Yours Truly who “ain’t very popular” and hence are too low on the pecking order to get any work, ongoingly…
After a while, those receiving no work will eventually take the hint, resign, and move on - meaning that a full furlough claim made by the entire company rather than site-by-site (third party, remember!) is then not upset by this pesky need for a furlough 80% government grant to “not be laying anyone off, or sacking people for no reason”.
Pressure is to lose staff by natural wastage only.
I’d consisder it extremely unlikely that no firms anywhere will claim furlough 80% grants for staff ANY staff - that have since left before that money got down to them…
The difference? - Goes straight into wider company’s pocket, of course…
These rules with regards to “zero hours contract agency workers on PAYE” - are left wide-open to agencies managing their book talent between “good agency” and “bad agency”.
The good agency - qualifies for the furlough grant, but then the bods involved initially getting that money are then put back to work after only a single week off… 80% of your money is then “quite satisfactory” albeit you are working 2-4 shifts per week, which may well be 80% of what you used to do. No free money for you, but you’re not complaining, because you know others got bugger all furlough money AND bugger all shifts!
The bad agency - ends up with all the drivers that “won’t be missed”, and because no grant was applied for on that side of the business - no fraud has been committed.
If there’s only one or two staff that turns out “won’t be missed”, then those particular staff may have grounds for bringing a tribunal or acas case, especially if they were constructively dismissed, “shadow Dismissed”, or merely “let go” without mentioning the reason why to the exchequer when asked the awkward questions that should already be in the past by this point… A calculated risk?
Not really. Businessmen going bankrupt only to bounce back and re-emerge as millionaires (like Trump for instance…) are well-versed in the totally legal trait of “dumping your personal losses into someone else’s pocket”, ideally someone who isn’t around anymore to object, or is out-of-reach of any proverbial merchant of Venice after their “Pound of Flesh”…
As I said “Creative Accounting”. Perfectly legal, just questionably immoral and out-of-the-spirit of what the furlough payments where actually meant for in the first place, which was to stop previously working people from “dropping out” of the tax club altogether.
It seems absurd to me that a company can split it’s books like this.
Stobarts do it with regards to their financing…
Supermarkets do it with regards to their “waste” liabilities…
There’s simply too many things that medium to large firms can do to escape taxes or increase their profits at taxpayer expense.
When this coronavirus thing has ended - there will be a reckoning, should the government then decide to tax firms with a net value of over £1m AFTER the economy has taken it’s share of damage.
If the government foolishly decides to tax Joe PAYE Public instead? Then the notion that Boris Johnson has moved left of Keir Starmer - would be TRUE - wouldn’t it?
We didn’t vote Labour because of the threat of higher taxes. - for ANY reason. Even Corbyn’s “Universal Income” - wasn’t a good enough justification to “Pay a little more in taxes” as we found out at the last election… 