I've read on the Benefits Handbook that both ET awards and settlements for unfair dismissal are counted as 'earnings' rather than capital. Can anyone clarify what this means in practical terms if you are in receipt of JSA? Earnings refer to a specific period of time when you were being paid, however, this would be a lump sum, hopefully substantial, but paid all in one go, how would the DWP consider these 'earnings'? I always thought it would be regarded as capital and there would be deductions according to the amount, or no benefits paid if over £16k, at least not until balance went down. I'm confused seeing it's regarded as earnings.

I was enrolled on an advanced level 3 Ict apprenticeship working for xxx. In my interview I was told that I would be building computer systems, installing and maintaining software and dealing with computer repairs. I was also told that up until Christmas time I might have to work in the warehouse for one week every month as they were understaffed in that department. It was November at the time and I agreed as I was desperate to find a placement and this company seemed perfect for what I wanted. I signed a contract with them saying that I was to work there for 12 months and that I was entitled to an apprentice wage. From the moment I started working there I was kept inside the warehouse, lifting heavy computers and emptying cardboard and plastic bins. I didn't do anything technical for at least a month. The only reason I was allowed a couple of days of building computers was because everyday I was complaining that I was an IT Apprentice and this was not what I had signed up for. When the time came for me to go to college for my IT assignments, my manager at the time told the college that he was not willing to let me go and therefor I missed out on almost a whole months worth of training. A few months later my manager was fired and a new person took his place. I was told that I would be able to do all of the jobs promised to me in my interview and that I would no longer work in the warehouse. I thought that would be a turning point and so I decided to continue my employment working at xxx. Every now and again my new manager would put me into the building side of production but only if I kept asking him. He kept saying that there was not enough work for us and that is why I had to stay in the warehouse. Three members of staff had left their building positions and I asked to be moved into their role but again I was told that there was not enough work and therefor I had to remain in the warehouse. Shortly after, the boss hired three new people to fill the roles. I was unable to gather any evidence for my assignments and I was also unable to have my apprenticeship assessor come in to watch me working. Whilst I was at college I completed all my assignments (some of them had to be done in my own time) and received distinctions in every one of them. I also went out of my way to take on additional assignments and MTAs as I wanted to get the very best out of my apprenticeship. I had also planned to go onto higher education afterwards and I had an agreed plan with Newcastle College that I could enrol on a Foundation degree on the agreement that I finished my apprenticeship. Three months before the end of my apprenticeship, my manager has claimed that there is not enough work for me and has said that he is terminating my employment. He gave me about a weeks notice and also said that I owed the company a weeks worth of pay. When I asked how I owed them this they said that they had taken my sick days away from my holiday pay. They were terminating my contract and therefor I was not entitled to the full amount of holidays that was agreed to in the contract. As I have been unable to finish my work placement at xxx I am unable to go onto a higher education course, I am unable to pay my rent and bills and I have not received any of the training that I was supposed to. The health and safety at xxx was a complete joke and I believe that they had no intentions of training me as an IT apprentice at all. I have wasted nine months working at that company and in that time I have received zero training. There are a great many other complaints I have such as the lack of health and safety and making us work outside of our contracted hours for no extra pay. I am wondering if there is anything that I can do right now? I have been reading up on apprentice rights and I believe that I have been unfairly treat and unfairly dismissed. I believe that because they terminated my contract early on the basis that there was not enough work (which there was) I should be compensated for the full duration of the apprenticeship contract. I am now left in a position where I cannot complete my apprenticeship and therefor I have nothing to show for all my hard work. As I don't have the training or experience that I was supposed to have, I cannot find employment working anywhere else.

Dear CAG. I have taken legal action against my former employer on the ground of unfair dismissal and racial discrimination. My claim for unfair dismissal is based on the fact that in February 2013 my former employer, with whom I worked since October 2011, had left me without any work, and because of that I was forced to seek new employment, which I did. The situation with my former employer is a bit complicated due to the fact that I was employed on, what is called, a "zero-hour contract", and it is clearly written down in my contract of employment with them, that they have no obligation to offer me any work, and I have no obligation to accept any work offered by them. I, however, think that the fact that I was employed on a "zero-hour contract" does not really matter as it is the true relationship between an employer and an employee that really matters, and in my case I believe I have strong case to prove that I was actually an employee. It will be, therefore, up to the Employment Tribunal to establish if I was an employee, or not. Followed by being left without any work in February 2013, but knowing, at the same time, that there were shifts available, in April 2013 (this was before I submitted my claim to the Employment Tribunal, and still not having any work from them since February 2013) I wrote a letter to my former employer requesting to immediately bring me back to work. Soon after that letter the employer started offering me shifts. I, however, still decided to proceed with a legal action and in the end of April 2013 I submitted my claim to the Employment Tribunal. My claim was accepted. In my ET1 form I claim unfair dismissal (the fact that I was left without work in February 2013 and forced to seek new employment) and racial discrimination. However, because I submitted my claim after I had send a letter to my employer requesting to bring me back to work, and as a response to that letter my employer started offering me shifts, in the part of the ET1 form where it asks "Is your employment still continuing?" I ticked: YES. The fact is, that following that letter, which I had sent in April 2013 and during the period when the employer was "trying" to bring me back to work, there were more discriminatory acts against me, which totally put me off, and up till today I have not worked any shift. I, therefore, have not worked at all for them since when they left me without work, which was in February 2013. In the response to my claim (ET3 form) the employer now argues, that I am still in employment with them, and I am being offered shifts, which I do not undertake. In this situation I do not quite know how to proceed. I still believe that I was unfairly dismissed in February 2013. I have done quite a lot of research on a zero-hour contract, and the fact is that an employer can terminate a zero-hour contract by simply stop offering work, and no other formal termination is needed, so therefore, I think I was correct to assume I was dismissed in February 2013, and this is exactly how I felt at that time. However, the fact that later on (in April 2013) I sent the employer a letter, in which I requested to be brought back to work, and as a response to that letter they started offering me work, as well as the fact that I ticked in my ET1 form that my employment is continuing makes me now think that maybe I am, in fact, still in employment with them. I am, therefore, thinking that maybe I should now send the employer a letter of resignation and claim constructive unfair dismissal, which I believe I have strong grounds to proceed with as well. However, I am not quite sure what the law says. Can unfair dismissal be undone? If the Employment Tribunal admits that I was unfairly dismissed in February 2013, could that dismissal be undone by me sending a letter to the employer requesting to bring me back to work, which they did, but at that point I did not want to work for them anymore and did not accept, nor did any work for them. If, however, my dismissal never actually happened, or that part of my claim fails, can I still claim constructive unfair dismissal? - if I submit a letter of resignation now. Is it legally possible to claim both unfair dismissal followed by constructive unfair dismissal? Or maybe I should not send any letter of resignation at all and stick to my original claim that I was unfairly dismissed in February 2013. I would very much appreciate any advice on that matter as I would not like to weaken my case by making any unnecessary mistake. Thank you very much and looking forward to any advice.

Hi, I have my case accepted by the Employment Tribunal and I need to set out in writing “what remedy the tribunal is being asked to award”. I am claiming unfair dismissal and outstanding payment. Last week the respondent received the claim and decided to pay my wages… they already paid half of the money and promised to pay me the other half in 2 weeks… PS: I don’t believe them, as they have sent 2 cheques to me and they stopped the payment on both. I would like some advise on what I am requesting as a “remedy” (I have 5 questions): - [1] Outstanding wages (only the half missing, right? But what happens if they pay me it before the hearing?) - [2] Loss of past earnings (from my last day of work to ____ – hearing date or the date of this letter?) - [3] Loss of future earnings (I didn’t find a job yet… and I don’t know when I will find … how long can I include here? 6 months?) The Employment Tribunal is also asking me to “include any evidence and documentation supporting what is claimed and how it is calculated”. [4] What kind of documentation shall I include? [5] Can I claim any compensation regarding the late payment and/or the two cheques with payment stopped? Many thanks.

Hello, I was employed by a large , well known company within the public sector for just under 3 years. (I don't want to say their name but they deal with "offenders" in the capital) At the end of June 2011 I was dismissed, the reason they gave on the official confirmation letter was along the lines of incapable through sickness absence. My sickness record there is as follows: July 2008 to end of 2009 - 26.5 days sickness on 6 occasions, 2010 was 36.5 days on 6 occasions. The main periods of absence were approx 1 month due to my partner suffering post natal depression, this affected me and I was signed off with stress for approx 4 weeks. I also had to have 2 operations on my toe during this time and each time required 2 weeks recovery time. Their sickness policy involves trigger points, and after my first period of sickness in late 2009, I was put onto stage 1 and given a target of no more than 4 days sick within 3 months. However I had to have my first operation on my toe within this time, therefore at the end of the 3 months, it was extended for 6 months with no more than 7 days. I believe that during this next stage I met the target, but due to the "review meeting" taking place later than it should, it ended up taking another few days sickness into account and as such I missed the target by 1 or 2 days. I was then put on stage 2 and given no more than 7 sick days target within 6 months, again within the 6 months I had less than the target, but the review meeting was delayed, I then had to take sick leave and when I returned this new sick leave as also factored in, meaning that I was told in April that due to myself now being put onto stage 3, I would be facing a panel to discuss whether my employment should be terminated. At this point, felt I could not face going to work so I was also signed off from mid April this year with stress, the meeting did not take place until 6 weeks later (despite them telling me it would most likely be within a few weeks). My line manager made a report for this hearing, and I was sent a copy. I attended the hearing and after explaining my side of the story, they decided to dismiss me with immediate effect. I was intending to appeal so waited for the confirmation in writing, this came around 8 days later, I replied with a letter stating my intention to appeal, I received a reply stating that they found my reasons for appeal "unclear" and asked to make them clearer. During this time I decided to contact the HR dept and obtained my sickness record. I have now come to realise that in the report that my line manager wrote, she has made serious errors with the actual number of sick days I have taken, this information was also quoted in the letter confirming my dismissal. In total I have been falsely accused of having another 113 days sickness absence. I am gutted that I did not spot these errors before the original hearing, but I have now highlighted these in my new appeal letter that was sent off by recorded delivery and also emailed to a few members of staff in HR who are dealing with it. I have yet to receive a response. It has now been 6 weeks since my dismissal, and I am aware than I have 3 months from date of dismissal to launch an employment tribunal case. Due to the way I have been treated I would prefer to given compensation, than to be given my job back, but I thought of going down the appeal process road first as if they reject by appeal it would make my tribunal case stronger. I am aware that my sickness record is not great, but every absence of over 5 days has been certificated with a doctors note as required by their policy, and I am aware of other members of staff who have had longer periods of sickness and not been dismissed or even faced a hearing. Basically I am asking if anyone has information on a dismissal that is likely to have been made on incorrect information. The HR person who provided me with my sickness record, was also the same person who was advising my line manager during the hearing and prior to it, so quite why they did not spot the errors also is beyond me. Any info or advice would be greatly appreciated.

I had a return to work interview (after more than a week off waiting for OH assessment that advised I was perfectly fir to work, as the hospital had stated on discharging me), immediately followed by a 'management restructuring meeting' where I was invited to resign or take redundancy. I asked at the start of the meeting when I realised where it was leading whether I would be supplied with minutes; the response was that it was not a formal meeting, so no minutes would be taken/available. I followed up the meeting with an email with my notes of the meeting. A reply came back with employers version - I think he'd been at a different meeting, still discussing 'restructure' with the implication my role no longer exists, although no reference to redundancy/req to resign that had been main topic of meeting. At a brief face to face meeting today, reaffirmed the redundancy 'option' - plus followed by a couple of emails from them referring to the face to face meeting, and 'the matter we spoke of' and 'the misunderstanding'. If I can't get decent settlement, planning to take to Emp Tribunal - but am concerned about this lack of written evidence - any advice? Also, can I insist on taking a friend with me as a witness to future meetings?

Hi I was sacked for gross misconduct on Thursday relating to poor performance at work. What I would like to know is how can they not have given me a warning first. I worked there for 3 years and they found I had made a couple of mistakes back in May 2011 which were picked up in June 2011 but I was never advised I had made a mistake then. The company now state it was gross negligance and poor performance but I didnt make the mistakes on purpose. They reckon with the mistakes I had made I kcould have jepordised their business. Do you think I was fairly dismissed?

I was just wondering if anyone would be able to help answer a question? I wondered if an initial disciplinary letter stated that a verbal warning could be the possible outcome of a meeting, but I was then suspended and terminated is this unfair? I mean shouldn't they have said the consequences could have been dismissal not a verbal warning? Thanks for reading.

I arrived home to find that my girlfriend had been dismissed from work, apparently due to the fact that she did not have a reference. She got in touch with the person who made the reference and confirmed that indeed a reference was sent in the post two weeks ago. The problem is that she can not physically prove that the reference document was sent, however the person who made the reference is willing to testify that it was. Does this amount to unfair dismissal as all the agency says is the deadline has passed. She was working for an employement agency on a full time basis and commended for her work, could there be, as we suspect, foul play involved. This could have been a lame excuse to get rid of extra staff, otherwise why wait until the end of the day to notify her of the situation. The agency also said it was a contractual obligation that all employees should provide references within four weeks, well the perculiar thing she had been working for them for seven weeks. Your advice is greatly appreciated

Hi all, I'm preparing an ET1 for my wife who's been unfairly dismissed. I've read a fair bit of stuff on the web, but not sure how much info to put on the form. There's a lot of things happened and I don't want it to end up as a long "witness statement". I've started with a basic timeline of events and think I now need to put down the reasons I believe the investigation was flawed/biased, etc. I'm worried that I might miss something vital out and be prevented from using it later. Bottom line is how much detail should I put in? Many thanks for any advice. Nick.

Hi everyone, My sister works in a small school with 7 teaching staff. 2 of the staff are on fixed term contracts with an end date of 31st August 2011. The Headteacher has recently written to all teaching staff informing them that if pupil numbers do not increase then 2 members of staff will be at risk of redundancy from 31st August 2011. How can the permanent staff roles be at risk when the most obvious course of action would be to just not extend or renew the fixed term contracts? Does anyone know? If a perm was made redundant then that post would need to be filled by either extending or making permanent one of the employees on fixed term.. Surely this means that the post was never redundant in the first place? Thanks