wording in compromise agreement

Jenstor

Hi all

Just after a bit of advice I have taken redundancy from work and have to sign a compromise agreement
it says on the agreement 'by reason of mutual agreement' would this effect me in anyway if I had to ever try to claim benifits in the future?

thankyou

Jarndyce

It might affect your rights to benefits in the immediate future - you'll need to check with DWP/Jobcentre Plus. We've had threads on here before where they treat Compromise Agreements as a resignation for the purposes of claiming JSA/ESA for example. But that's what a compromise agreement is - a mutual agreement to terminate the contract, and for other purposes - eg future job applications, references etc, that is preferable to being dismissed for example.

EconomicsGirl

Shouldn't cause any problems - You can take voluntary redundancy with a compromise agreement and still claim JSA - the firm just needs to be making redundancies anyway and needs to show if you weren't made redundant someone else would be. The amount of compensation you get would be taken into account for income based JSA but not for contribution based JSA which is payable for the first 6 months. Note you can claim JSA immediately even with pay in lieu of notice.

ponymad_3

thought it might reassure you that i signed compromise agreement, the ref details redundancy and I have been awarded JSA. The letter arrived today - claimed 10.7

Flooz

Just a thought here, and if I'm wrong, hopefully someone will point that out.

But in my experience, a compromise agreement is only valid if you have taken legal advice on it.

I had to have one once, and the firm that issued it (a solicitors) paid for me to take independent legal advice. When I tried to waive that, I was told that the agreement wouldn't be valid without the legal advice.

Might be worth looking into.

Jarndyce

Flooz wrote: »

Just a thought here, and if I'm wrong, hopefully someone will point that out.

But in my experience, a compromise agreement is only valid if you have taken legal advice on it.

I had to have one once, and the firm that issued it (a solicitors) paid for me to take independent legal advice. When I tried to waive that, I was told that the agreement wouldn't be valid without the legal advice.

Might be worth looking into.

Yes that is correct, but the legal advice will just tell you that the agreement may affect your eligibility for benefits and to take advice from the Jobcentre!

Pee

Agree that a solicitor will probably not advice you on entitlement to benefits. The job centre or CAB should be able to help with that.

whitelabel

yup my solicitor just said that the amount offered was mostly due to me any how with notice period etc and that I could get more if I rejected and went to tribunal, but would be my decision
no mention on effect of benefits, just always make sure an agreed reference is mentioned in advance