PAYE refund if unemployed for 12 months

My brother has just been made redundant. He says that he was told by the payroll dept. that if he is still unemployed a year from now he will be able to reclaim all tax that he has paid this year. I have never heard of any such scheme and I wonder has he misunderstood something. Has anyone ever heard of a scheme such as this?

For 2009 tax year:
He will get some tax back, but not much as 10/12th of the year is passed. During 2009, and until he was made redundant, he was paying tax each month on the assumption that he will be working a full year. So he is entitled to some tax back.

For 2010:
On Jan 1st starts a new tax year which is independent of 2009 tax year. He will then be assessed on 2010 incomes (e.g. SW + pay when he gets a new job ) regardless of what happened in 2009.

Open to correction, but i think he indeed misunderstood something..

I'd say he misunderstood something or the payroll office have their facts wrong. There is no way he would be entitled to a full tax refund of all tax paid in the year at this stage. As your tax is generally worked out during the year on the assumption that you would work a full 12 months, there would be tax credits that he hasn't used would be entitled to a tax refund. Once the 01 Jan comes around the new tax year starts and any unused credits form previous year are redundant. As Bacchus states, the amount of tax back at this late stage of the year would not be a full refund of all tax paid.

I *think* if he starts his own business he might be able to claim a significant amount of tax refund or credit...not sure.