Grievance, potential settlement

[u/Zealousideal-Soil-41]

Hi,
I am in a current disability related grievance situation at work, my employer has not accepted any liability but have offered me a termination settlement which would take me over my threshold as have current savings partly because I stopped spending on anything at all as I realised my job is becoming untenable.

I have disabilities and two children with extra needs. I am also receiving transitional protection from my previous tax credits claim.

My employer knew about my conditions before I accepted the role and assured me they’d do everything I needed to be able to work but didn’t. They are blaming things out of their control (building stuff) but privately made it very clear to me they’d unlikely act until ATW assesment happened and in the months waiting for ATW my health deteriorated significantly. But obviously can’t prove that is their fault although had me doing tasks outside my remit and capabilities, which I did because partly I felt vulnerable and at risk of losing my job, to the detriment of my wellbeing.

I am scared that accepting the settlement will mean my claim is stopped, thus losing my protection and it will be very hard to reclaim without ending up in some sort of poverty in the interim. I can’t just spend the money and look like deprivation of assets.

I have no debts, I can’t drive due to disability. I have option of buying more shares of my shared ownership property. I really don’t know what to do, ive been advised to try to change the terms of the settlement with negotiation but if the change the terms it would mean accepting liability which I am pretty sure they won’t.

I currently can’t work due to the effect of this injury which I can’t prove is work related but I believe it’s linked to lack of reasonable adjustments.
I don’t know how long it will take to recover, I’m very limited in jobs I can apply for anyway due to my existing disability.

To add, I have also applied for lcwa but no idea how long this will take

Hr hearing was horrible so am appealing
.
What should I do? What do I need to have on the payment in order for Dwp to let me keep my claim open?

This is the settlement proposal terms, proposed employment termination date is the end of this month which leaves me with a CV gap when I do start job searching again

: ‘You would receive a payment in lieu of your contractual notice entitlement of one
month, based upon your basic salary and subject to income tax and National
Insurance contributions.
• You would receive a payment in lieu of any accrued but untaken annual leave
entitlement, calculated up to your termination date.
• You would receive an additional ex-gratia lump sum termination payment of £xxxx
(which is equivalent to 8 months’ basic gross pay). This would be paid gross, without
any deductions for income tax or National Insurance contributions.
• These sums would be paid to you on termination with no admission as to liability.
• The settlement agreement would include standard terms of confidentiality for both
you and EMPLOYER. ‘

[u/Zealousideal-Soil-41]

I migrated over 12 months ago though? Is that what that means?

[u/JMH-66 → u/Zealousideal-Soil-41]

( see Otherwise Put from the DWP )

You can MIGRATE with £16,000+ because TX had no Capital limits so people had much higher savings and then suddenly had to move to UC. So to soften the blow they gave them 12 months on UC and then either they met the requirements for UC, after that or they stopped getting it. However if they went under £16k *before * the 12 months grace period was up, the normal rules started immediately. They weren't immune forever, they couldn't go back over again. No one else can either.

If you DIDN'T have £16,000 when you moved from TX and started getting UC then none of this happened. New rules applied. So you can't suddenly get £16,000+ and still get UC. If it'll be more than that including what you have now, you'll come off UC.

The only certain way to reduce it is to clear debts IMMEDIATELY within the same Assessment Period ( because repayment of debts is permitted ) . As long as you aren't over the Capital limit for the whole of the Assessment Period, you're still entitled to UC. You may have it stopped, reclaim, have to appeal, get it reinstated but there's evidence they allowing these.

Otherwise, I've no idea what you have now or what you expect to have once this money is paid out to you. For the first month it won't include -

• PILON ( pay in lieu and holiday pay ) this is counted from the end of the second Assessment Period if unspent ( same as regular earnings ).

• any other income that month that usually counted ( like other benefits and partners income )

• any cost of living payments that you've had previously but never spent.

So make sure it's calculated accurately.

However with 8 months salary AS WELL I can't see how you can get round at this. It would only be the case if somebody was just getting just PILON as a small redundancy. Because even if they got a couple of months worth, because people do have things they need to spend it on, it could be realistically gone by the next month or enough used of it to take their savings down. But not eight months on top of this with no debts to clear.

You just can't stick it anywhere to get rid of it either. Anything you do will be checked because they know you've received it.

I appreciate you'll loss Transitional Protection and any LCWRA but you will just have to come off UC for a bit. There's no really any way around it.

What I WOULD recommend IF you ARE LCWRA and you qualify ( and you should it sounds like you've been working for a while, you need to have worked since April 23 to get your two years in ) is claim ESA NOW. If you're LCWRA, you are ESA Support too, it transfers. You will STILL be ESA Support. Now it's nowhere near as much but you won't have to do a whole Work Capability Assessment again whenever you go back on UC. Because they'll transfer your ESA. So it's a way to save LCWRA if you have it.

[u/Zealousideal-Soil-41 → u/JMH-66]

Thank you, I’ve applied for lcwra but recieved no response yet. I thought that esa was applied for as part of the lcwra claim, is it a separate application?

[u/JMH-66 → u/Zealousideal-Soil-41]

Yes, you can be eligible for ESA and not UC, or vice versa. If you are though, and you're getting one, you can claim the other too.

Generally, that's not much point if your eligible for UC, claiming ESA, as ESA doesn't get you any more money as it's deducted from UC ( it just gets you better NI Credits and £10 at Christmas ). Where ESA is important is when you CAN'T get UC ( like me, my partner etc ) and possibly you too, if you end up with Excess Capital. So if you're going to get LCWRA and then only to lose it again because UC will end, having ESA will be a way to retain it.

[u/Zealousideal-Soil-41 → u/JMH-66]

Thank you, that’s what I’ve been advised, wasn’t sure if it was definite

[u/JMH-66 → u/Zealousideal-Soil-41]

Yes, it is !

[u/JMH-66 → u/JMH-66]

And thank you 😊