Unable to work employer refusing to lay off help.

Limara

Asking for a mate, he was a overnight delivery driver, he has now been off work for 5 months 
He had some seizure/fit on a motorway no other vehicles involved, wrote off the vehicle, a few weeks prior thought he had fallen asleep at the wheel and went off rd that may well have been a seizure as well.
Has see neuro DX was epilepsy now been changed to brain bleed .

He can't drive, I think it's a min 6 months for a car and several years for a larger vehicle.
His company are refusing to terminate his employment which greatly affects benefits he can claim. 
They are telling him he has to resign surely that can't be right.
They are also keeping all his personal items that were in the truck the night if the accident.
Any advice please

elsien

Whether he is still employed or not won’t make any difference to the benefits that he can claim once any company sick pay has run out.
If he can explain what benefits he thinks are affected then maybe  people here can give some guidance. 

Just checking, he wasn’t actually self-employed? 

Any means tested benefits will be based on the savings that he has, and possibly how much his partner is earning if he is living with someone, not on his employment status with regards to universal credit or ESA.
If he is eligible for PIP, that isn’t means tested. 

He needs to put his circumstances through one of the benefit calculators.

He doesn’t need to resign if he doesn’t want to. The company can choose to finish his employment on capability grounds following the correct process. If he’s an employee he will continue to accrue leave at the statutory rate in the meantime so it may be worth hanging on for that. They want him to resign because that just makes it easier for them, and that is the right thing to do for some people, but it’s not obligatory. 

https://benefits-calculator.turn2us.org.uk/
https://www.entitledto.co.uk/

Mark_d

Dismissing your mate should be a last resort for the employer.  Presumable your mate gets sick pay and will be on the road eventually.

Are the company refusing to allow him access to his personal items, or are they refusing to courier these items to your friend?

Your friend's GP should probably write a letter stating what work your friend can do and what his prospects are as a driver. If your friend is a member of a union, maybe they can support/advise

elsien

The GP isn’t qualified to say what work the person might be able to do.  That’s a job for occupational health. 

They probably also won’t comment on inability to drive in the future because that information would come from the consultant in the first instance, and it may be well be too soon to say. 

marcia_

elsien said:

The GP isn’t qualified to say what work the person might be able to do.  That’s a job for occupational health. 

They probably also won’t comment on inability to drive in the future because that information would come from the consultant in the first instance, and it may be well be too soon to say. 

 His job is as a driver. If he has had a seizure he cant drive he has to report it to the DVLA who will ask him to surrender his licence until such time they assess his situation.

General_Grant

elsien said:

The GP isn’t qualified to say what work the person might be able to do.  That’s a job for occupational health. 

They probably also won’t comment on inability to drive in the future because that information would come from the consultant in the first instance, and it may be well be too soon to say. 

I understand "fit notes" include space for mentioning things like changing duties to take account of a health condition - such as "no heavy lifting" or changing aspects of the workplace/workplace adaptations.

As GPs can complete the fit notes, presumably they can include comments about what work can be done.

elsien

The GP doesn't always have the relevant information. For example one of my staff was signed back to work by the GP who was not aware it was a challenging behaviour setting and there were certain aspects of client's behaviour that would pose more of a risk due to the staff members health condition. That needed a specialist in the condition to properly assess and advise on reasonable adjustments. GP was just thinking "care home" with no clue about the client group / the level of support. 

Yes the GP can suggest  no light work, or whatever, but they tend not to get into the remit of anything more specific around work place adaptations because ultimately that is the employers decision once they have risk assessed etc. usually in line with occupational health. The employer can overrule GP suggestions if following correct procedures they just aren't appropriate. 

Limara

elsien said:

Whether he is still employed or not won’t make any difference to the benefits that he can claim once any company sick pay has run out.
If he can explain what benefits he thinks are affected then maybe  people here can give some guidance. 

Just checking, he wasn’t actually self-employed? 

Any means tested benefits will be based on the savings that he has, and possibly how much his partner is earning if he is living with someone, not on his employment status with regards to universal credit or ESA.
If he is eligible for PIP, that isn’t means tested. 

Employed  not self employed.He gets SSP and reduced rate UC,  for some reason that makes him not eligible for council tax and on UC alone would pay nothing .
Also the SSP and UC is considerably lower than he should get on UC  the entitled to calculator.
The company is only a small place that do deliveries there is no other job in the company and has been told he can't  drive. 
First accident he was off sick and was told he would have to have a medical to return, they got short staffed and demanded he went back to work. Medical never happened.

Limara

Mark_d said:

Dismissing your mate should be a last resort for the employer.  Presumable your mate gets sick pay and will be on the road eventually.

Are the company refusing to allow him access to his personal items, or are they refusing to courier these items to your friend?

He gets SSP  as for eventually getting back on rd it's 5 years seizure free for a lorry!
Refused access to all his personal items.

elsien

Limara said:

elsien said:

Whether he is still employed or not won’t make any difference to the benefits that he can claim once any company sick pay has run out.
If he can explain what benefits he thinks are affected then maybe  people here can give some guidance. 

Just checking, he wasn’t actually self-employed? 

Any means tested benefits will be based on the savings that he has, and possibly how much his partner is earning if he is living with someone, not on his employment status with regards to universal credit or ESA.
If he is eligible for PIP, that isn’t means tested. 

Employed  not self employed.He gets SSP and reduced rate UC,  for some reason that makes him not eligible for council tax and on UC alone would pay nothing .
Also the SSP and UC is considerably lower than he should get on UC  the entitled to calculator.
The company is only a small place that do deliveries there is no other job in the company and has been told he can't  drive. 
First accident he was off sick and was told he would have to have a medical to return, they got short staffed and demanded he went back to work. Medical never happened.

This part of your question needs to be posted in the benefits part of the forum -  the experts there may not see this.  

Limara

elsien said:

Limara said:

elsien said:

This part of your question needs to be posted in the benefits part of the forum -  the experts there may not see this.  

Thanks for the advice pretty much know the benefits part it's because he is still classed as being employed that's causing him problems they have decided he's not fit to work but he is still employed lol.
 There is no job they have took on some one else to do his job and he can't drive as he has no licence to do so.
They insist he has to resign and I'm pretty sure they should dismiss on medical grounds unless things have changed a lot since I worked in HR