FTA Redundancy Compensation

The following details have been supplied by PCS DWP Group:
Do you know any ex-FTA Members that this might apply to?

In February 2013 PCS took DWP to an Employment Tribunal (ET) to secure redundancy compensation for our ex-Fixed Term Appointment (FTA) members who were dismissed without compensation when their FTA contracts were ended after two or more years of qualifying service. PCS won the tribunal and redundancy compensation payments have now begun to be paid to these ex-FTA members.

Hundreds of ex-FTA members have already claimed their redundancy compensation and are receiving their payments. However we believe that there is still a large number of ex-FTA members who have not yet claimed their redundancy compensation. As DWP will not pay the compensation unless the ex-FTA members apply for it, we need to do everything possible to ensure we contact as many of the ex-FTA members as possible and encourage them to apply.

Criteria
Do you know any ex-FTA members who satisfy the criteria for redundancy compensation.The key criteria are:

• The FTA must have had at least two years of qualifying service. Please note that qualifying service excludes any periods of unpaid absence or unauthorised absence and this particularly impacts members who were employed for exactly two years.
• The FTA must have been dismissed at the end of their contract and not have resigned or left for another reason.
• The FTA must not have been re-employed in another government department within 28 days of their dismissal from DWP. If they were reemployed in another government department between 28 days and 6 months of their dismissal any compensation would be reduced.

The compensation available is calculated as one month’s pay for each year of service. As the civil service compensation scheme uses the figure of £23,000 to calculate the minimum salary of staff, this means that two years of qualifying service is worth at least £3,833 in compensation. This figure increases for any FTA who had longer than two years service.

Contact FTA Members
PCS wants to ensure that as many of our ex-FTA members receive the compensation payment that they are entitled to. PCS DWP Group office has contacted every FTA who had registered their interest with us and hundreds of these FTA’s have now been paid their compensation. However we believe there are still a large number of ex-FTA members who are unaware that they may be entitled to compensation.

If you know an ex-FTA members who has not been contacted previously by PCS and who may be eligible then please contact the Branch Office.