Spring 2008
The company I work for has recently been taken over and transferred 30 miles away. Can they make me travel this far or should they be offering me redundancy?
It's not quite straightforward and depends on a number of things like your contract, your circumstances and whether you have been offered suitable alternative employment.
First of all, it depends on whether there is a mobility clause in your contract of employment, which says that you are required to work in any one of a number of locations or within a geographical area (although the geographical area could be the whole of the UK!)
If there is no mobility clause in the contract, an employment tribunal would usually find that you were redundant because the business you work for has moved. However, you might lose this entitlement to a redundancy payment if it was felt you had unreasonably refused an offer of suitable alternative employment. On the other hand, if moving to new premises means that you could no longer pick up you children from childcare, for example, your circumstances would make you able to claim redundancy.
There have also been challenges to mobility clauses on the grounds that if the employee only ever works in one place, it is unreasonable to insert a mobility clause into a contract and could have been done simply to avoid redundancy claims.
I always thought I'd take my pension as soon as I could, but now I'm coming up to retirement age I don't really want to leave my job and my employers want me to stay. Do I have to claim my pension straight away?
No. When you reach State Pension age you may not need the income from your pension because you intend to carry on working so you can decide whether to claim your pension or defer it.
You can claim your State Pension while you carry on working - your earnings will not affect the amount of State Pension you get, but State Pension counts as income for tax purposes, so if you claim it, may well affect the amount of tax you have to pay. Or, you can put off claiming it for a while to get either extra State Pension or a one-off taxable lump-sum payment when you do claim.
If you decide to put off claiming State pension, your options will depend on how long you put it off for. The longer you put it off the more you will get - for every five weeks you put off claiming you build up extra State Pension at 1 per cent of your normal weekly rate. To get a lump sum payment you have to put off claiming for at least 12 months continuously. You do not need to tell the Pension Service which option you prefer until you finally claim your State Pension. The choice is yours and will depend on your circumstances and wishes.
My son is a student and has to do eight weeks work experience as part of his course. He has got a temporary job but has been told he won't be paid. Surely he is entitled to at least the minimum wage?
From October 1,2007 students in further education who undertake work experience as part of their course have been added to the list of people who are not entitled to the national minimum wage.
However, from the same date, the rates for those who are entitled to the minimum wage went up - although at £4.60 the rate for young people aged 18-21 is still lower than that for older workers. For those aged 16 and 17 it is even lower at £3.40, including this year's 10p an hour increase.
The main adult rate paid to those aged 22 or over has increased to £5.52 an hour.
To find out if you are eligible to claim the minimum wage, contact the National Minimum Wage Helpline on 0845 600 0678. You can also use the Tailored Interactive Guidance on Employment Rights (TIGER) website at www.tiger.gov.uk.
Last updated: January 31, 2008