When can he sign on

cmar_2

Hi, my husband has had his employment terminated at 11months and 3 weeks. He has been paid to the end of the month and been paid an ex gratia payment by cheque not taxed or shown on his P45, can he sign on jobseekers in August. Does he have to declare the ex gratia payment.

getmore4less

Yes to JSA and even if declared it is tax free up to £30k.

cmar_2

But will they consider the payment to be in lieu of notice and not allow him to sign on for another month.?

getmore4less

cmar wrote: »

But will they consider the payment to be in lieu of notice and not allow him to sign on for another month.?

AIUI it used to be that notice counted but the rules changed so you qualify immediately you are terminated.

daveboy

I'm no expert in employment law but that smacks of a very dodgy employer who knew full well once the employment had lasted more than a year they would find it harder to get rid of him.

I feel for anyone who starts a new job as they have 12 months to fear this sort of thing.

Personally I would name and shame this shoddy employer as this is out of order but unfortunately legal (as Labour suck up to businesses big style).

londondulwich

Section 86 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 (ERA '96) sets out how much statutory notice an employee is entitled to. This is the minimum any employer must give.

S.86(1)(a) says that an employee who has served 1 month or more is entitled to a weeks' notice:

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/ACTS/acts1996/ukpga_19960018_en_10

Section 97 of the ERA '96 deals with clarifying when the dismissal actually happened.

s.97 (2) and (3)(b) says that if an employee is dismissed without notice, a tribunal will add on the week(s) he should have received and extend the date of dismissal by the week(s) of notice he should have been given.

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/ACTS/acts1996/ukpga_19960018_en_11

If your husband was sacked on the spot for no good reason a tribunal will add the 1 weeks' notice he was due to his 11 months of service.

The effect of this might be enough to bring him within the required 52 weeks of service (1 year) he needs in order to bring an unfair dismissal claim.

According to HMRC, compensation payments do not attract national insurance but do attract tax.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/nimmanual/nim02510.htm