Non payment of Furlough

[HHEPPY]

Good afternoon Beagles,

I'm after some advice.

During the pandemic my employer claimed furlough for me (and others) throughout the whole period, however, he only paid me 2 payments.

I have been sent details of the claims made by the payroll company, and it's clear to see that the money was paid to the company but never to me.

When I told the payroll guy (October 2021) he came back to me with the info and further information to say that HMRC had told him to issue me with a P45 even though I had not terminated my employment.

My boss had initially promised to make the payments to me, but by August 2020 had only made 1 payment, he made a second to me in October 2020, but after that he failed to answer my emails and calls.

By the end of the year my work email account and mobile phone were deactivated so I was unable to make contact with him through those channels.

I have attempted to contact him since without success.

He lives in the US, otherwise I would have visited him personally, might still do that and add the costs associated in getting there onto any claim I am able to make.

He has clearly committed Furlough fraud, HMRC are aware of this, I was wondering though if it could be as simple as having a solicitors letter sent to him / the company demanding payment or other legal debt collecting processes.

The company is / was UK registered at the time and had other UK and US subsidiaries.

any suggestions would be greatly appreciated as I estimate the amount owed is around £22,500.

many thanks

Andrew

[Gazer]

With respect I would say that it is time barred to go to ACAS as it is outside the 3 months minus one day period to bring a dispute. Others will confirm with more certainty though.

Why have you left it so long to raise?

[ULA]

It would appear from your post that you are no longer working at the company. When did you leave that employment?

Also you say is was a UK registered company is it still in existence, you can check at Companies House if you are not sure?

[HHEPPY]

Thanks for the reply ULA

the payroll company was advised (they claim) to issue me with a P45 from October 2021.

neither I nor my employer terminated the contract of employment between ourselves, so I’m not sure where I stand in relation to this.

i have worked on a self employed basis since this time, I haven’t checked lately but the company was still in existence.

i did email the admin@ address yesterday but was instructed to post on here first.

i will send another email now as there is additional sensitive information that I’m not happy to put on a public forum

many thanks

[ULA]

Sorry but your response just creates more questions:

1. If you were not given notice by your employer and you did not resign how can a payroll company give you your P45?
2. How long had you worked for the company?
3. You say you are working on a self employed basis, I presume this is not for the same company or at least I am hoping it is not.

[HHEPPY]

The payroll company owner claimed to have been advised to do so by HMRC, when I questioned them further for proof I was told that it was via a webchat and there was no name of who advised this within HMRC.

i had worked for the company for 8 years in total

my self employment is completely unrelated

I hope that helps

[ULA]

I would highly doubt that HMRC would advise an employer/payroll company to terminate someone's employment by issuing a P45. Unfortunately given the time since this happened you have no recourse to any employment tribunal claim in respect of the termination of your employment. You would also be out of time for making an unlawful deduction of pay claim which the with-holding of furlough pay would potentially be classed as.

The only recourse you may have would be a civil claim. However, you would need to have proof that the furlough payments should have been made by way of payslips setting out the amounts due and then bank statements to prove the money was not paid would be the least that would be required and you may need more than this to prove the claim. An immediate issue though, is that you are claiming you are owed £22,500 which is a fast track claim and as such, if you lost the claim, you would be liable for the other parties legal costs which could be significant, so here at LB we would always advise that someone considering this should take professional legal advice.

My area of expertise is employment and am certainly not a expert on pursuing a civil claim but those are my thoughts on that particular course of action.