Help please SSP woes, no money, and no benefits

[kittykat13]

Hello

 

My first post, I have to apologise beforehand if I am in a panic!!!

 

Tried to see the CAB today, but after queuing for hours we didn't see an advisor, as they are overwhelmed with people needing help in these difficult times.

 

I'll try to be as concise as possible:

My partner is signed off with ill health, we have had considerable financial problems for 3 months. This started when his company said he could work full time, and this affected all our housing benefit and tax credits entitlements. Full time work only lasted 2 weeks, and without any notice his company said they only really had enough work available for him to work part time after all, and so the housing benefit/tax credits etc all had to be re-assessed again....there have been overpayments and all sorts of probelems we are appealing against with the tax credits.

 

In order for us to be able to pay our rent last month, his company made a 'good will gesture' and informally lent him the money (there was nothing in writing). He worked for a while before his health deteriorated and now his medication means he can no longer use heavy machinery, and he can no longer do his job, because it all involves heavy machinery in construction.

 

He was in receipt of SSP, but last week his company said that in order to recover their informal 'loan' they were going to keep his SSP and holiday pay. He was not informed, he said his holiday pay would be sufficient to cover the debt, but they have taken all his SSP too, and are not going to pay it in the near future. Apparently this is legal

 

However, he cannot apply for the Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), full income support, or Job Seeker's Allowance, so apart from our modest savings, we have no money to live on. We only have enough to pay our rent & bills for two weeks. We having housing benefit and should get the SSP topped up in income support (the claim is ongoing, we haven't had a payment yet) but he has no SSP for the last 2 weeks.

 

My partner is willing to resign on health grounds and look for any other work he could do, but resignation would affect his JSA claim - everything would have to be assessed by an adjudicator. His Doctor will be able to provide evidence. I don't think his company will dismiss him on health grounds, they have been very unethical with their staff previously and I am fearing the worst. My partner is the latest to suffer. He has worked there almost 12 months, so his Union can't help as he isn't covered by any employment rights.

 

I don't work as we have a 3 year old son, and we're in a desperate situation - should he just resign and hope for the best with the job centre?

 

Any advice is greatly appreciated,

 

thanks

[elche]

 

He was in receipt of SSP, but last week his company said that in order to recover their informal 'loan' they were going to keep his SSP and holiday pay. He was not informed, he said his holiday pay would be sufficient to cover the debt, but they have taken all his SSP too, and are not going to pay it in the near future. Apparently this is legal

 

Who told you this?

 

Allow me to explain.

 

a) s.27 ERA 1996 - The definition of wages includes SSP

 

b) The only permitted deductions from wages are those authorised by statute (and that does not include loans unless the loan was wages and if it was wages how can it be a loan?), or those authorised by a document signed in writing IN ADVANCE of the deduction by the employer. Yet you say, "...his company made a 'good will gesture' and informally lent him the money (there was nothing in writing)"

 

c) Thus, this looks deceptivley like a potential unlawful deduction from wages claim?

 

Che

[kittykat13]

thanks for your reply elche

 

it does look unlawful, I agree. How could we challenge it? apart from a tribunal? (The union said he can't go to a tribunal yet, as he hasn't worked there for 12 months).

 

Yes, the loan a loan, it wasn't in the form of wages. The money was given to him with a verbal agreement that he could pay it back when we received the housing benefit. It was very disorganised, but his manager said the company would lend him our rent money because the mess over his hours meant all our tax credits and housing benefit stopped & had to be re-assessed. In the meantime his medical condition worsened, probably not helped by stress & money worries.

 

My partner didn't agree to them deducting his SSP or sign anything. He did call the Statutory Payments Disputes Team and they said that the company can legally deduct your SSP if you owe them money, but they didn't say under what conditions or whether they could take all of it or not. Any dispute will take a few weeks to sort out, and in the meantime we have no benefits either.

 

So yes, I think my partner will resign on health grounds, as anything from the job centre is better than nothing. Ideally he would hold out until his 12 months come up at the end of the month, but we have no income so we are between a rock and a hard place.

 

It just seems wrong that its legal

in effect they are starving a family over a couple of hundred quid - they have all his holiday pay that he earned last year, so it isn't a lot of money, max £300

[elche]

How could we challenge it? apart from a tribunal? (The union said he can't go to a tribunal yet, as he hasn't worked there for 12 months).

 

I'm sure the union are wrong.

 

You don't need 12 months service to bring an unlawful deduction from wages claim.

 

If you did an employer could employ you for 10 months, pay you nothing, dismiss you and then you couldn't claim - it wouldn't make any sense.

 

Furthermore, as you are effectively claiming a breach of contract, then you could bring such a claim in County Court or ET.

 

Let's concentrate on the ET route. Allow, LORD RODGER OF EARLSFERRY, in this weeks House of Lords case (House of Lords - Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (Respondents) v Stringer and others (Appellants) para 14-15) to explain a little about a claim for unlawful deductions:

 

If a worker considers that his employer has failed to pay him any sum due under regulation 14(2), (*this is holiday pay, but this route would also apply to any payment due that was 'wages') he can make an application to an employment tribunal under regulation 30(1)(b) of the Regulations: “A worker may present a complaint to an employment tribunal that his employer -

… (b) has failed to pay him the whole or any part of any amount due to him under regulation 14(2) or 16(1).”

15. Regulation 30(2) provides, however, that an employment tribunal is not to consider such a complaint unless it is presented within three months beginning with the date on which it is alleged that the exercise of the right should have been permitted, or within such further period as the tribunal considers reasonable in a case where it is satisfied that it was not reasonably practicable for the complaint to be presented before the end of the period of three months.

 

Just google 'unlawful deduction from wages'

 

Che

[kittykat13]

Thanks elche, I appreciate all your advice. I have told my partner everything you have said - he has still resigned, and will sign on asap, but I think he is definitely considering a Tribunal, as you suggest. We have been put through much hardship by his ex-employers, they are meant to be an 'ethical' company, ironically

My partner hasn't been the only person to suffer either