Redundancy/Benefits Advice

stephonice

As part of a mass redundancy at the company I work for, both myself and two members of my family have been made redundant (I have not yet reached my finishing date but my family were finished much earlier).

This question is on behalf of my sister who was made redundant with 7 years service - terms of the redundancy was statutory £380 per week with a PILON close - word was passed around the staff that you could not make a claim for any benefits until the end of your notice period.

She waited for this period and then went to sign on, they asked why she had waited so long and she told them that she thought she had to live on the money and obviously her severance statement stated she had been paid in lieu of notice for seven weeks.

She has now received a letter saying that whilst she did meet 'labour market conditions' for claiming Jobseekers Allowance, she has not shown good enough reason why she delayed going to sign on and her back claim has been denied.

Is this just something that we need to put down to experience or should I help her to appeal - she is not a high earner and this redundancy is actually a major blow that will cause financial hardship in the very near future.

As it was our HR department that gave the impression that we could not claim straight away and I still work in the company, would it be worth getting a letter from them to say that they may have mis-led the staff or would that bring trouble for the company ?

getmore4less

It used to be that you could not claim but this change a long time ago.

Why protect the company they misled the employees with incompetant HR

Get it in writing

Do you have this in an email/meeting minutes.

I don't think(so check) it changes the total 6 months claimable under contributions JSA so she only misses out if she gets another job.

Was she actualy looking for work for those weeks?

stephonice

She only got the letter yesterday so I have not had chance to go through my paperwork of minutes from the Employee Forum to see what was actually said - my sister worked in a different part of the business to me but as I am a senior manager, I have been actually involved in the consultation process, I know that I was in 1:1 consultations with our HR where members of my department were told the same information but not sure if anything in writing.

Yes she was looking for work but how can she prove it other than by saying she was.

getmore4less

I think you should get HR to issue an official note to everyone still in the company and all those that have been made redundant explaining they have made a mistake and that the information that benifits could not be claimed till after the period that PILON covered was incorect and they are sorry for the miss information.

The company should look to help people get the benifits they were entitled to and even consider compensationn if JSA is not backdated.

Job seeking proof would be applications letters/signed on with agencies.