Furlough scheme abuse
Money Box
BBC
4.2 • 825 Ratings
🗓️ 16 May 2020
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Money Box has been hearing from furloughed workers who say their employers are abusing the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. It allows staff to be put on leave while the government pays 80 per cent of their wages up to £2500 a month. One worker says he’s being forced to keep working and another says she’s been furloughed but isn’t being paid. Guest Sarah Chilton, partner with employment law specialists CM Murray
We hear from Endija who bought her two-bedroom home after viewing it through a virtual tour. Guest Mark Hayward, chief executive of the National Association of Estate Agents
And the programme looks at the latest measures to help insurance customers with financial difficulties caused by coronavirus.
Email moneybox@bbc.co.uk with any questions for the programme.
Presenter: Paul Lewis Producer: Charmaine Cozier Reporter: Dan Whitworth Editor: Emma Rippon
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | In Northern Ireland, from the late 70s to the early 90s, the IRA killed over 40 alleged informers. |
| 0:08.0 | But the man who often found, tortured and sometimes killed these people on behalf of the IRA |
| 0:12.0 | was himself an informer, a secret British army agent with the codename Stakeknife. |
| 0:18.0 | Who gets to play God? And why me? Why my family? When lies are still being told to this day, |
| 0:24.0 | who do you believe? I wouldn't even know where to start and I'm with the IRA. |
| 0:28.5 | Steakknife. Listen first on BBC Sounds. BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts. |
| 0:45.2 | Hello, in this Moneybox podcast, would you buy a house without even visiting it, the strange new world of virtual tours? |
| 0:49.7 | New rules which should help people pay for insurance in these difficult times. |
| 0:54.7 | And how can entrepreneurs who are excluded from all government grants help themselves? |
| 1:05.0 | But first, the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, has revealed that seven and a half million people are now furloughed at home under the coronavirus job retention scheme. |
| 1:11.9 | The government program gives their employers a grant to cover 80% of their pay up to £2,500 per month. |
| 1:15.9 | But Moneybox has had dozens of emails and tweets from people claiming the scheme is being abused by employers who are taking the money but breaking the rules about how it's used. |
| 1:22.1 | In effect, a fraud on taxpayers. Dan Whitwood's been investigating. He's with us now. |
| 1:27.2 | And what if you found out, Dan? |
| 1:28.7 | Well, Paul, we've had lots of people get in touch to say their employers have, as you say, |
| 1:33.3 | been abusing the scheme. And I'm going to go through three of the most common examples we've |
| 1:37.2 | been getting. Now, for obvious reasons, we've changed people's names to try to protect their |
| 1:41.9 | identities. So first up is Steve. Now he works for a small |
| 1:45.4 | company and says he's been asked to work virtually every day since being put on furlough, something |
| 1:50.6 | that is strictly against the rules. Now this isn't his voice, but they are his words. |
| 1:56.5 | My employers have explained they know they're breaking the rules because they have said, |
| 2:00.8 | technically, you're not supposed to be working, but we need you in for the good of the company |
... |
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