Since Money Box last weekend I have been overwhelmed with stories about #furlough being refused. Some companies don't understand the rules, others don't have the money to keep going until the support is available, some can't use it because of the #newstarterfurlough issue.

It's an incredible and unprecedented scheme and today we heard it is going to cost vastly more than predicted because take-up is higher than anticipated. It's helping a *lot* of people just now. But...

Some of the stories I am hearing are so upsetting. One man tells me his employer has furloughed all staff except for those on zero-hours contracts. They are simply not being given hours, leaving them with no income.

One woman has been fired along with entire team she manages because the company couldn't guarantee work after the crisis is over. That's not a restriction placed on employers by the furlough scheme.

I've heard from countless people whose employers fired them when the crisis hit but before the scheme was announced and now simply won't answer their messages or emails about reinstating and furloughing them.

Plus several businesses who can't afford to keep their staff on long enough for the scheme to kick in.

It is an unprecedented scheme, rolled out at unprecedented speed and supporting an unprecedented number of jobs and therefore workers. But the cracks are large and the people who have fallen through feel strongly they have been unfairly abandoned.

And the most distress has come from those workers whose employers have prevented them from accessing the salary subsidy that would get them through this period relatively unscathed. They can't understand why it's up to their employer whether or not they can pay their bills. Ends.