Many people were wondering what basis would be used for working out the appropriate furlough claims for March and April 2021 for staff on variable hours. Up until that point, part of the process has involved looking back to the same month a year earlier, and using the higher of that month’s pay or average 2019-20 monthly pay. But that process would start to fall apart from March, because if you looked back a year you’d be looking at a month that could itself already involve furlough pay, and then you may be starting to work with 80% of something that’s already been reduced to 80%, which is hardly fair.
The new rules have now been published, and they dictate that for those months, you’ll look back two years, to March 2019 and April 2019, for the single-month element of the "higher of" comparison. That’s going to be great news for some people. Somewhere out there, there will be someone on furlough who was paid on average £500 a month in 2019-20, but had a really big April 2019 when they were paid £3,000. That means they’ll have had a furlough bonanza in April 2020, when the system looked back to April 2019 and based their pay on that big month. And now they’re going to have another big furlough month in April 2021, getting a second chunk based on that same April 2019 pay.
On the other hand, this “look back” system produces losers too, even before the new March/April wrinkle. Anyone with fixed hours who has increased those hours in 2020-21 and is now furloughed is going to be paid based on a similar look back to 2019-20. Imagine someone was working three days a week back in January 2020, but within the last 12 months they’ve gone up to four days. Now their employer has furloughed them for one of those four days a week. They’re going to get no pay for that day, unfortunately. The system will look at their usual hours back in January 2020, then look at their actual hours worked in January 2021. There’s no difference, and that means there’s no claim.
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