Martin Lewis has successfully convinced the government to change guidance surrounding its coronavirus job retention scheme.
Many workers have found themselves in uncertain waters due to leaving their jobs after February 28, which is the cut off date for government support.
MoneySavingExpert founder Martin Lewis launched a campaign which lead to the government clarifying firms can in fact rehire and furlough employees who had left their job for a new job, which then fell through due to the pandemic.
Under the scheme, a firm can choose to put employees who were on the payroll on February 28, 2020 on furlough.
This means employees don't work and the state finances 80% of their salary up to £2,500 per month.
Employers can top this up to 100%, though they are not required to.
Official guidance has always stated that employers can rehire and furlough staff they'd made redundant after February 28 2020.
Earlier this week, Martin received confirmation that nothing prevented firms from doing the same for staff who'd left only for their plans to be derailed due to coronavirus.
But many employers said it couldn't be done as they had yet to see anything concrete from government officials.
Martin approached HMRC for clarification and after further discussions, HMRC agreed to provide the finance whizz with a statement while also changing the official guidance for clarity.
The official confirmation from HMRC reads: "The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme is aimed at those who would otherwise be unemployed as a result of coronavirus.
"It allows for those who were on the payroll of a company on 28 February but subsequently left to be put back on payroll and furloughed.
"This includes those who have resigned to start a new job after 28 February. They may return to their old employer, but decisions around whether to offer to furlough someone are down to the individual company."
The news was confirmed by Chancellor Rishi Sunak on Twitter:
The Chancellor said it was a question for the company itself but a company was permitted to take an employee back and furlough them.
He added HMRC would be updating its guidance to reflect this and to ensure it was "crystal clear".
On the MoneySavingExpert website, Martin responded: "I'm grateful to the Treasury and HMRC for the official statement and agreeing this amendment to the guidance.
"Via the furlough scheme, the Government has outsourced an arm of the emergency welfare state to corporate Britain, and made it gatekeeper of this new form of wealth support.
"The hope is this will allow us to restart the economy quickly when we come out of lockdown."
New government advice was issued on Sunday, April 6, as promised.
In the guidance for employees, it now says:
"If you were made redundant or stopped working for your employer after 28 February 2020. Your employer can agree to re-employ you and place you on furlough.
"They'll still be able to claim a grant to cover 80% of your regular wages, up to a monthly cap of £2,500 if you were on your employer's PAYE payroll on 28 February 2020."
And in the guidance for employers, it now says:
"If you made employees redundant, or they stopped working for you on or after 28 February 2020, you can re-employ them, put them on furlough and claim for their wages through the scheme."
