Zoella put her £25k a year office manager on furlough despite being worth £5million

Zoella put her £25k salaried office manager on the government’s furlough scheme, despite being worth £5 million and charging £20k for a sponsored post on Instagram.

The scheme is in place in order to help companies that are struggling and yet throughout the pandemic Zoella has signed deals with BMW, Spotify and Etsy.

In the last few weeks alone Zoella has done paid advertisements for Sky, Function of Beauty and A Good Company on her Instagram.

Zoella’s agent Maddie Chester, at Gleam Futures, told the Mail Online, Holly Macey had been placed on the scheme as the A-Z office had been shut since March.

She said: “I can confirm that the A-Z office manager Holly Macey has benefited from the government furlough scheme due to the A-Z office being shut since mid March.”

It is believe that the rest of Zoella’s team including her social media manager and advertising manager are self-employed and therefore not placed on a furlough scheme.

Holly is thought to be the only one and her responsibilities include organising parties and events for Zoella, wrapping presents and walking Zoella’s dog. Guessing Zoella had time to walk her own dog during lockdown?

via Instagram @zoesugg

Zoella had posted a picture of Holly on her Instagram a few days ago and Maddie confirmed Zoella and Holly are friends outside of work, hence why they were together at a pumpkin patch.

She said: “Zoe and Holly are very good friends and do a lot of activities outside of work such as pumpkin picking yesterday.”

A Tory MP has condemned Zoella for her use of the furlough scheme and said it was there for companies requiring emergency funding.

Andrew Bridgen said: “This was an emergency government use of taxpayers’ money to help businesses in trouble during the pandemic.

“It seems very odd to me that a company which operates online should have made this claim as online businesses have done very well during lockdown.

“I would expect the department concerned to take a close look at the circumstances and if there’s been any kind of work done by this employee, the money should be paid back.”

Zoella has not commented on placing Holly on the furlough scheme.

Featured image credit: Instagram @zoesugg

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