Rejected petition Relax furlough rules for UK Charities.

Rejected on 16 April 2020

Relax furlough rules for registered charities, particularly those linked to Health and Social Care, so they can continue to support the NHS and society. Furloughed Charity employees currently cannot support their own employer by volunteering, even if this would supplement support to the NHS.

The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (furloughing) is a lifeline to charities with low reserves. Government encourages furloughed staff to volunteer to support the NHS or charity, but does not permit volunteering for one’s employer. This risks charities’ ability to operate through this crisis. Furloughed charity employees should have the right to volunteer for their employer, so charities can continue to support society by directing all available funds to beneficiaries, including the NHS

Why was this petition rejected?

There’s already a petition about this issue. We cannot accept a new petition when we already have one about a very similar issue.

You are more likely to get action on this issue if you sign and share a single petition.

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/311559

You can find out more about coronavirus and how you can protect yourself and others here:
www.gov.uk/coronavirus
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/

You can read NHS tips to help if you are worried about coronavirus here: https://www.nhs.uk/oneyou/every-mind-matters/coronavirus-covid-19-anxiety-tips

You can read impartial analysis of the Government response to coronavirus and policy developments here:
https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/coronavirus/

You may also be interested to know that because of the large number of petitions that have been started in relation to coronavirus, the Petitions Committee has been questioning the Government about its response to the coronavirus outbreak.
 
Find out more and watch the Committee put questions suggested by petitioners to Government Ministers and the Deputy Chief Medical Officer: https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/326/petitions-committee/news/145767/committee-question-deputy-chief-medical-officer-and-ministers-on-coronavirus-response/
 
Read letters asking further questions of Government Ministers: https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/326/petitions-committee/publications/3/correspondence/

We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.