I’m registered as a carer for my 84 year old mother. The company I work for (almost 35 years!) has just announced that it’s closing our office and moving us 50 miles away. The Mobility clause in my contract says that I “may be occasionally asked to work at another location”. but not permanently. I’m 60 and it isn’t really practical to travel 50 miles (it will take around 2 hours each way) every day. Am I entitled to redundancy? This has not been mentioned as an option and as the statutory redundancy would work out at almost a year’s salary, it would be rather handy as it’s 7 years to State Pension Age.
Hi @simont and welcome. Employment law is a complex area. Your best bet is to contact ACAS. The website is at www.acas.org.uk you should find their free helpline details there.
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Hi @simont and welcome to the Forum.
I am a few years out of touch with Redundancy Rules, but I think you should be entitled to Redundancy if they relocate the office it would effectively be ‘constructive dismissal’. It might be worth checking with CAB as they’ll be able to give impartial advice.
I hope Mum gets Attendance Allowance if she needs Care as then (if you don’t already) allows you to claim Carers Allowance, gives you N.I. Credits to maintain your benefit entitlement and you could still - if you wanted to - earn up to £139 a week without any deduction from CA.
Of course, stopping work means you wouldn’t have any travel costs to get to work - that was a heck of a reduction in expenditure when I had to stop work to care for Graham - so it means less outgoings to think about. Redundancy payments are tax-free so if it worked out at around a year’s salary, hopefully you could eek that out for a while if you got CA.
You don’t mention if Mum had any disabilities, or if you live with her - or her with you - but others will be able to advise if she might be entitled to Council Tax reduction.
A difficult decision for you to make, but if you could pick up a bit of part-time work to supplement your income it might help to balance the books til you reach Pension Age.
Ah - just seen @Charlesh47 posting so he has beaten me to it - must improve my typing speed!! ACAS is an excellent place to start as they deal with this sort of situation daily!
Good luck!
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Definitely contact ACAS.
I studied Employment Law as part of a Business Degree many years ago, they were so helpful to me when I was doing an assignment and needed some information.
Another thought is to contact your union, if you have one.
If they insist on their policy, they may well be falling foul of the requirement to make reasonable adjustments for you, it may count as Constructive Dismissal. As a carer, you are entitled to the same adjustments as if it was you who was disabled. You might be entitled to a lot of compensation!!!
I’m sure our Carers UK helpline should be able to advise you further. Carers are getting more and more protection, thankfully.
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When my former employer was closing sites down, those whose commute was increased by 45 minutes or more each way were allowed to apply for Voluntary Redundancy. Though I’m not sure how much of that was due to regulations rather them just wanting to get rid of us. But an unreasonable increase in commute times would I’m sure be evidence.
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