Redundancies & long term illness benefit?

[TillyD]

Hi,

Asking a question for my uncle. He had a employee working for him who went on illness benefit 5 years ago, he never handed in certs although my uncle still had him on his books. Out of the blue yesterday he rang asking if my uncle had any work for him, which he doesn't but he didn't tell him that. He told him he had but this guy really wants teh redundancey, he knows he doesn't want to come back.

My question is how much redundancey is he due to pay him, is it for the time he was with him only or for the time he was with him plus the 5 years he was on the sick.

Thanks, Tilly.

 

[Ildánach]

First of all, he has to be made redundant to be eligible for a redundancy payment.

If the person has been on sick leave until now, and hasn't had their contract terminated, then they are still employed, and their service is considered to be unbroken.

For the last three years of employment, the first 26 weeks of sick leave is counted as service (this is increased to 52 weeks if the injury/illness occurred in work) when you are working out how much service the payment is based on.

For periods that occured longer than 3 years ago, all service is fully reckonable.

That means in the above circumstances, if your uncle makes this employee redundant, he will have to pay him a redundancy payment for all of his service up until 3 years ago. The last 3 years will be disregarded.