‘We are heartbroken’: new entrants caught by the loophole without permission | Money

WAgents who had just started new jobs before the coronavirus hit UK companies are caught in a “license trap,” with the government scheme to cover 80% of their earnings that are not available to their employers. .

When the crisis first hit, Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced that companies could apply for help paying staff wages that they would otherwise be forced to lay off as the economy stagnated.

Under the job retention scheme, companies could keep people, even if they couldn’t work, and claim wages of up to £ 2,500 per month for each worker.

Initially, the scheme applied to workers who were on their employer’s payroll on February 28, but on Wednesday the Treasury said the deadline would be changed to March 19. This move, until the day before the plan was announced, would mean that more than 200,000 additional people could qualify, the Treasury said.

But while the change was welcomed as progress, it doesn’t cover everyone who recently changed companies, or the temp workers who were about to start working in vacation parks, airports, and youth hostels.

They have been fired and will need to apply for a universal credit, even though their employers have said they want to accept them again when the closing is over.

“This new date will be a great relief to thousands of people who had been let go, and through horrible bad luck had slipped through the licensing plan network,” says Sarah Coles, personal finance analyst at the firm. Hargreaves Lansdown Advisory Board. .

“Unfortunately, the detail of the change means that not all employees before March 19 will be incorporated into the scheme. You must also have been on the payroll of your new employer, and HM Revenue & Customs must have been notified before this date. If your employer generally notifies HMRC of the changes at the end of each month, it should have started in late February to qualify. ”

Some workers who contacted The Guardian to tell them that they did not qualify for the scheme had already worked on their jobs for several weeks but were not yet on the payroll of their new company. Others were yet to start with their new employer, but had been told not to show up on their first day.

The move to include more people in the scheme followed a petition, which had been signed by more than 70,000 people by Friday asking for these workers to be considered, and putting pressure on parliamentarians across the country on behalf of their constituents.

Mark Tami, the Labor MP for Alyn and Deeside, is one of those who has written to the Chancellor. He says: “I fully support Rishi Sunak’s promise that no one will be left behind, but now he must deliver on this. That means supporting new headlines. “

Tami says the Treasury should consider a scheme based on past earnings, similar to the one offered to freelancers.

“The alternative is for a large group of people to be forced to get universal credits or new-style benefits, if they are lucky. Given that senior cabinet ministers have said they could not live on legal sick pay, which is more For these benefits, it seems wrong to expect that unfortunate people have been caught in the chancellor’s permission trap to do so. “

The March date allowed Adrian Mooney, who runs an industrial services company in Belfast, to suspend a new staff member who had previously told him he couldn’t help.

Mooney says he is delighted that the chancellor has extended the scheme. “If you only knew the safety and benefit it has brought to our employees and to our company, perhaps it would give you pause to think about the other workers and companies that are still excluded from the plan for reasons beyond their control,” he says. “Any post-closure recovery will surely improve if trained and retained personnel are in place when restrictions are relaxed.”

The government has suggested that workers could ask their former employers for help. A spokesperson said: “They may return to their former employer, but decisions about whether to offer someone a license rest with the individual company.”

However, those who contacted the Guardian said this had not worked for them, even when they had left on good terms. One says that her former employer had told her it would be “inappropriate” to get her back on her payroll, and others said that their previous workplaces had closed.

“They told me they would fire me”

For the past four years Barry Wilkinson, 53, has spent half a year working on the British Antarctic Survey and half a year working in the UK for the Youth Hostel Association. He doesn’t think the change in date will help him.

“I go back to the same job every year, but every time it’s a new contract,” he says. “I started back at YHA Buttermere in Cumbria in the middle of the weekend in March and we had a group. We were due to open properly next weekend, then it was announced that we would have to close. The licensing plan was announced Thursday … At first I thought it would cover me, then at the end of the following week, they called to say no, and they would fire me.

“Now I’m not sure what happens: Most payrolls are done at the end of the month and it looks like my tax filing was done on March 23, so I don’t have much hope.”

“I can apply for another job, but when there was a wave of jobs advertised in supermarkets, I didn’t know that was the case, and now there isn’t much of that. My two employers have been great, and the British Antarctic Survey has offered everyone those who had a contract at the end of February get an extra payment per month, but beyond that there is nothing they can do. “

‘We have fallen into the smallest crevice’

Saffron sprouts, 28, and her husband began working as gatekeepers at a holiday park in Loch Lomond on February 25, but were not added to their new employer’s payroll in time to qualify, even now that the date has changed.

“The deadline for payroll was 22, so we were only added in March and received a late payment for the first three days,” she says.

“They said we could stay on the property, which is a real comfort, and that when they reopen they want us to work here. In the meantime, we could apply for a job, but we don’t have a car and it’s very rural, so we would have to move to get something.

“We can’t go back to our old employer, and it’s supposed to be a job retention scheme, so there would be no point in doing so.” Our employers want us to stay with them and we want to stay … We have fallen into the smallest crevice here and are heartbroken. ”

“I have no right to anything”

James Underhill He has been working in the private sector since he left the forces after 30 years in late 2017. He started a new job with a real estate agency on March 10, the day after he finished his old job, but his employer told him not to. qualify.

“My employer put me on free leave along with everyone else, but then I heard from them that since I wasn’t on their payroll on time, they couldn’t pay me, I’m not entitled to anything.”

“I am still employed by the company, so I cannot apply for anything else at this time. I have too many savings to qualify for universal credit.”

“They told me that my job offer would be on hold”

Nikki Addison, 50, worked for Thomas Cook and lost his job as a cabin crew when the company closed last year. She was due to start work at Gatwick Airport in early May, so she is not yet eligible to be suspended.

“I had my tax-free interview with Gatwick in January, I was offered the job the same month and signed my contract and returned it the first week of February. They requested my air pass, which involved obtaining details of my HMRC work history.

“Then, a couple of weeks ago, they called to tell me that they would have to suspend my job offer: the airport is practically closed now. I wouldn’t expect to be suspended until my start date, but the rules mean they couldn’t.

“Many of my former colleagues are in the same position. They may have signed contracts in December, but work on the airlines generally begins at this time of year. We can’t go back to Thomas Cook to help us. “