Starting A New Job On Furlough... Legalities?

[badhorsey]

With UK furlough extended until the end of June (and maybe even further), a lot of people who've been furloughed are looking for new jobs.

What is the legal position if you found a new job but just didn't resign at your old one? Under furlough, you're allowed to work but not for the employer who has furloughed you (and it's worth noting that someone with two or more jobs could get the full furlough amount from each one).

You'd be pulling in a salary from the new job and getting the furlough payment from the original one - which would seem to be legal. After all, at the end of furlough you could presumably quit the new job and return to the old one, or vice-versa.

[Zacs-Master]

Pretty sure your NI and tax records would flag up when this happens.

[fiction-factory]

Yes, you can take on another job while on furlough- eg some have become fruit and veg pickers on farms

[Zacs-Master]

I think the OP means being paid two lots of furlough pay.

[Zacs-Master]

Mmm. Maybe not. I think they mean getting furlough pay from old employer and actual pay from new one. If so, my first answer still applies.

[fiction-factory]

I have about five different concurrent employers each tax year- there is no limit normally. I'm currently furloughed by 2 of them (the others haven't bothered it seems). There's no reason why I can't do some other paid work, especially as both are zero hours contracts. HMRC would/should pick it up though if the employer furloughs you and then also takes you on again as a paid employee so you get 180% of pay. I bet there is some fraud going on with employers paying furlough and then paying cash to the same people for carrying on working off the record

[fiction-factory]

If you start a new job you can't be furloughed for that as you needed to be on payroll at a certain date to qualify

[fiction-factory]

"The furloughed employee must have been on your PAYE payroll on or before 19 March 2020, and an RTI submission notifying payment in respect of that employee must have been made to HMRC on or before 19 March 2020. "

[badhorsey]

"Pretty sure your NI and tax records would flag up when this happens."

They would indeed, but I would be interested in what the outcome of that would be. You'd be charged more tax and NI; but would the furlough payments be clawed back?

I probably didn't make this clear. The scenario is taking on a new full-time job on full pay, but still receiving furlough payments from the 'old job'.

[Buenchico]

You can take a second job while on furlough and receive 80% pay from your original job and 100% pay from from your new one. The only proviso is that you must remain available to return to your first job if the employer decides to stop furloughing you and/or you must be able to undertake any training activities that your first employer expected you to carry out during the furlough period.

Just as with anyone who takes on a second PAYE job, while still employed in a first one, you won't be able to present your new employer with a P45, so you have to complete the 'starter checklist' for your new employer instead. That will ensure that the PAYE system looks at your total pay and deducts the correct amount of tax. i.e. assuming that your personal tax-free allowance has been swallowed up by your first job, you'll pay 20% tax on every penny you earn from the second one (unless, of course, your total income places you in a higher tax bracket).

There is no 'claw back' within the Job Retention Scheme under such circumstances. You can keep all of the pay you receive from both jobs.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/check-if-you-could-be-covered-by-the-coronavirus-job-retention-scheme#while-youre-on-furlough

[Skyline D]

@Buenchico
You can take a second job while on furlough and receive 100% pay from both of them if your 1st employer chooses to keep paying you in full. He'll only get 80% subsidised but he can pay you in full if he wants to.

As you say though, furlough as a scheme is designed to keep people in work when they would otherwise lose their job. To keep claiming furlough when you have no intention of returning to the 1st job is at best immoral and potentially fraudulent (if presumably very difficult to prove). Your 1st employer if he's aware you have a new job and are not coming back if probably also guilty of the same.