A GLASGOW woman who has fallen through the gaps in the government's coronavirus job retention scheme says she is being "penalised" for improving her prospects.

Jaimelee Rattray has joined up with thousand of workers who moved jobs in March to call on Chancellor Rishi Sunak to amend the scheme.

A Facebook group set up by those affected has more than 6000 members – and their petition demanding a change has around 60,000 signatures.

They can't be placed on 'furlough leave' by their new employers as they weren't on the payroll by the Feburary 28 cut-off date.

READ MORE: Thousands demand furlough scheme loophole is closed so people get wages

The Chancellor has told people to ask their old employer to add them back onto their payroll so they can receive 80 per cent of their wages through the government support package.

But some former employers are refusing to take their old staff back on.

Jaimelee, who is an admin on the 'New Starter Furlough' Facebook group, hasn't been re-employed by her old company.

And she said she isn't entitled to benefits due to her partner's job as a police officer and, therefore, key worker.

"I'm in the unfortunate position of having accepted and signed a new contract of employment on February 24," she said.

"I resigned from my employment of three years and worked a notice period to March 24. My new employment start date was confirmed as March 30."

But, due to the coronavirus pandemic, her new employer has deferred her start date for three months – and can't guarantee she will still have a job.

"They can't pay me," Jaimelee, a legal PA, said. "They can't place me into furlough as I wasn't on their payroll on February 28.

"I have worked since I left school aged 16, no breaks in my employment history of 19 years. I am simply being penalised for bettering my job prospects at the wrong time."

Through social media, Jaimelee, who is from Govan and now lives in Renfrew, has found thousands of people in the same, or worse, situations.

READ MORE: Call to stop freelancers 'falling through the gaps' in coronavirus support package

The petition states: "This is a huge oversight and puts thousands of workers at risk, and stuck in the place of having no income and little to no prospect of getting employment in this current economy."

But Mr Sunak said the cut-off date was needed to check "people were employed by a company at that time otherwise the whole system is open to enormous fraud risk, of just anybody saying that they were working and would be furloughed".

"We need to be fair to the taxpayer as well who is ultimately going to pay for all of these," he said. "We need to be able to process these claims and then verify them against something and the only thing we have to do that is the payroll data."

He added the government has made changes to Universal Credit to help people who can't be furloughed, which he believes "could make a difference to many families."