Petition · past parliament
Review corporations for potential abuse of the furloughing system post pandemic
Rejected
13 signatures
What the petition asks
Reports of football clubs furloughing low paid staff at tax payer expenses whilst continuing to pay the large salaries of footballers along with corporations axing crucial operational staff whilst maintaining the salaries of executives have emerged, this is a betrayal of public trust.
Post pandemic peak, government to retain a firm of impartial and reputable auditors to review the claims for furlough payments against the list of retained staff during the pandemic crisis for flagrant abuses and then to take action against those corporations and individuals deemed to have abused this noble gesture from the UK government and tax payers.
Why it was rejected
It was not clear what the petition asked the UK Government or Parliament to do.
It is up to individual employers to decide which staff to furlough and claim the wages of through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, and also whether to make other staff redundant. It is therefore not clear that the situations you have described represent an abuse of the system.
You could call for the Government to change the rules of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, if you wanted it to only be accessible to businesses that have furloughed all of their staff, or have not made any redundancies.
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/
The Government has also created an online service to help you out what you can do if you’re struggling because of coronavirus: https://www.gov.uk/find-coronavirus-support
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/
You could call for the Government to change the rules of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, if you wanted it to only be accessible to businesses that have furloughed all of their staff, or have not made any redundancies.
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/
The Government has also created an online service to help you out what you can do if you’re struggling because of coronavirus: https://www.gov.uk/find-coronavirus-support
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/
Timeline
| 31 Mar 2020 | Petition opened for signatures |
| 19 May 2020 | Rejected by the Petitions Committee |
Key facts
Signatures
13
Status
Rejected
Rejected
19 May 2020
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Source: the official petition page. Last checked 15 Jul 2026.