Whats a Grand Worth £1000

[felixthelogchopper]

Compromise agreements often state that you won't be able to work in the same trade for a specified time limit - don't know what your future plans are but be aware of this and see it coming - it is usually used to clear a person out of a company and have no client poaching soon after!

 

Your company will have given you a figure that they think will give the offer a bit of interest - know your rights and if tempted, go in at say £5k or £10k and be prepared to take less - better than taking the first offer.

 

£1K may seem like a lot of dosh but you can burn through that pretty quickly looking for work.

 

That comes more under Restraint of Trade which is taken as being unenforceable unless the person relying on it, ie the firm making the person redundant, can show that it is 'reasonable'. It is a real legal minefield with so many variables such as distance of limitation, uniqueness of product/trade and so on. It's all down to the judge's perception of 'reasonable' which is a bit of a lottery.

[firewood]

Without doubt take some legal advice. The sum offered seems derisory to me. If you were / are in a position that warrants a compromise agreement I would guess that at at least £10k should be the sum to play with. Remember they will be balancing that cost against the statutory minimum plus legal fees plus tribunal costs and tribunal compensation. If they want rid of you then you have the whip hand with regard to settlement price.

 

I believe you can receive up to £30k taxfree per annum as compensation for loss of office so tax should not be an issue.

 

Btw make sure you keep all correspondence and a diary of events. All helps if things go pearshaped.

 

Best of luck.

 

http://www.kinnoirwoodfuel.co.uk

[Phil The Wood]

Take the money. At least then you've got something to show for it. If you want to shoot your mouth off afterwards, go ahead, no-one's listening anyway. If you don't take the money - you end up with nothing. You can always go back and ask for more...

[Cookie]

You can always go back and ask for more...

 

No chance! once signed its a done deal and there will be no going back cap in hand. They'd be hard pushed to retract any offer already on the table because legal advice was taken before signing, in most cases that's a legal requirement anyway. Legal advice will cost very little if anything and could save you £££. Don't sell out easily, that would be a huge mistake and one you may live to regret, all for the sake of an hour with a good solicitor.

[ThrustSSC]

I believe you can receive up to £30k taxfree per annum as compensation for loss of office so tax should not be an issue.QUOTE]

 

Not quite as simple as that, I'm afraid. If his contract includes terms specifying any payoff, then anything in line with those terms is taxable. It can be as simple as "pay in lieu of notice" being in the contract - without that clause it's redundancy and therefore untaxed up to the limit (your £30k was certainly the case some years ago - I don't know about now), whereas with that clause it's contractual and therefore taxed.

 

My fear here is that the OP's employers may be relying on him e.g not being much of a one for figures or for paying for professional legal advice. If he believes that's what they believe, it should be ringing alarm bells in his head! They wouldn't be the first firm to take advantage of someone less-academically minded!

[Spruce]

I believe you can receive up to £30k taxfree per annum as compensation for loss of office so tax should not be an issue.QUOTE]

 

Not quite as simple as that, I'm afraid. If his contract includes terms specifying any payoff, then anything in line with those terms is taxable. It can be as simple as "pay in lieu of notice" being in the contract - without that clause it's redundancy and therefore untaxed up to the limit (your £30k was certainly the case some years ago - I don't know about now), whereas with that clause it's contractual and therefore taxed.

 

My fear here is that the OP's employers may be relying on him e.g not being much of a one for figures or for paying for professional legal advice. If he believes that's what they believe, it should be ringing alarm bells in his head! They wouldn't be the first firm to take advantage of someone less-academically minded!

 

I think that pay in lieu of notice is quite distinct from any enhanced redundancy deal and will be paid PAYE. I was recently made redundant by a huge company who follow the letter of the law in all this sort of thing as they want to avoid any legal disputes. I received pay in lieu of notice through PAYE and an enhanced redundancy payment of two weeks pay per year's service on top of the statutory redundancy payment which was all tax and NI free. There was a compromise agreement associated with the enhanced payment, the company not only paid for a consultation with a lawyer but insisted that I had one.

 

£1000 enhanced redundancy for 7 years service is a joke, though.

[windfall]

If you are an exec director you are an employee of the company so I would agree with the 1k being a joke. You need to speak to your Industrial Relations Officer at local gov for free advice or a lawyer.

 

Acas.org

 

Have you had a consultation period?

 

I think statutory for 7 yrs is 7 weeks notice is required plus a weeks pay per year.

 

If none exec director you would I think be lucky to get anything...

[ThrustSSC]

 

I think that pay in lieu of notice is quite distinct from any enhanced redundancy deal and will be paid PAYE.

 

It's taxable if your contract states that's what you'd get. If there's nothing about it in your contract, it would be non-contractual and therefore free of tax. I appreciate it sounds like splitting hairs, but we all know that's how the law is.

 

£1000 enhanced redundancy for 7 years service is a joke, though.

 

Agreed!

[Jesse]

Hi Folks

I value the mixed opinions one here and have learnt a lot as a "lurker" that's helped me SO time you gave your honest opinions back

i'm about to get paid off .... seven years and i've help'd grow the business.......Two sides to every story....

Long &short is i work for one of the licensable business(only 4 in UK),seven years nearly eight ,so they want rid of me ,for political/monetary/we can use agency people

I'm offered

Either sign a compromise agreement with 1k more than statutory min, and inherit all tax and ni liability's

option1 (me and famliy could use the cash)

Or

Take the bare minimum and not be gagged, but risk them not paying me,and being happy with myself .

Thoughts please

Go to a lawyer your first visit should be free of charge, i dont think you should mess about , just do it.