Furlough or sick pay

[KRIS17]

Hi

Posting here to get information for a friend. His position has been furloughed and his company have claimed the furlough from the government, which he was paid in his recent salary payment.

However, he has been off work sick since before the furlough began, and wants to know if the company were right in paying him the furlough payment given they had already claimed this from the government, or should it be sick pay given he is still off sick? And if this is the case, would the company be obliged to pay the government the furlough payment back, and to retrieve the additional monies paid to him in his last pay?

Unfortunately, his illness isn't recovering as quick as he had hoped it would and now he is concerned about his pay but hasn't wanted to address this with his seniors as yet. If anyone knows the law around this and what he is entitled to I will pass this on to him. If you need any more info please let me know and I will find out what I can.

Thanks in advance.

[ULA]

The government guidelines on furlough were updated on 9 April and as a result it gave employers the ability for staff currently on long term sick leave and in receipt of sick pay to be furloughed. The updated guidance also confirmed that short term illness and self-isolation should be dealt with by utilising SSP in the usual way, but for longer absences, they could as already stated furlough these employees.

If an employer does furlough an employee currently on sick leave, the employee is no longer eligible for statutory SSP. The amount which the employee is paid whilst on furlough, however, must be the same or greater than statutory sick pay (SSP). It is the employer’s decision whether to furlough staff on sick leave and it was optional not compulsory.

I would therefore suggest that your friend's employer has made the decision based on these new guidelines to move to them to furlough rather than SSP. I presume that this is more beneficial for your friend and given that the employer could make the choice to do this and recover money under the furlough scheme it was a good thing to do.