Jury service and loss of income

[biggerthanadonkey]

I'm ready to cry my dp has been selected for jury service the month of December. It already messes up lots of Christmas plans we have with family/ friends my dp had annual leave left to use for this which he'll lose and to top it off I've just read that you don't get paid for Jury service. My DP is the main ( by a long shot ) earner in our home. What the hell do we do 😫

I've been called for the first two weeks of January!!!

There is payment, but for many people it nowhere near covers what they will lose from work. I'm just gad it is January as my son is a music student and also autistic and there are loads of events he is performing in that I need to attend.

Some employers pay their staff in full when they do jury service, so that's one thing to check.

If not, you do get an allowance for lost earnings, but it's less than a lot of people earn, so if this applies here, can he use his leave while he serves, so he still gets his salary in full?

As for the plans you had, if these were things you've booked, like travel, he could ask to defer until another time, but they don't have to allow it, and next time might be even less convenient, or they might never call him again.

He can defer it

You can get loss of income expenses for jury service but it's shit how they work it out.

I work evenings and they wouldn't pay me because jury service was in the daytime but there was no way I could do jury service in the day and then go to work in the evening as my health isn't good enough.

You get about £65 a day for each day you are required at court. The days you aren't required you can go to work as normal and get paid by your employer. I did 2 weeks jury service and was only required at court for 2 days out of 10.

It's pure shit! Absolutely enrages me. He brings home 95% of the income and we've used all our savings moving house. Absolutely could cry. This is so unfair

You can apply to defer it, I think losing annual leave would be a reasonable thing to take into account. Plus having to cancel trips to family etc during that leave. It doesn't hurt to apply for a deferral. The only thing is that I think you can only defer once, so you can't avoid it the next year (exceptional circs allowing),

I think you can only get out of it if you are a carer etc. don’t think annual leave would count. Check your insurance polices, it was covered on our house insurance I think.

You can't rely on that though. When I did it, I was only 'in court' for about 3 days, but for nearly all of the other 7 days, I was required to sit and wait in the jury room in case I was picked/needed. I think I had half a day in those two weeks when I was actually allowed to leave the building.

And seeing as the jury room was like the worst most overcrowded waiting room imaginable, it was impossible to do any sort of work, not that there was any wifi or much of an internet signal anyway.

How are families ment to cope with this? I mean we are already getting it tight atm but to now not get any December pay is just disgusting. I am ready for crying

If you are needed for less than 4 hours your payment is much less too.

Many of us work in industries where cover has to be got so we can't just say to our employer we will go in after all at the last minute.

https://www.gov.uk/jury-service/delaying-or-being-excused-from-jury-service

Actually I tell a lie you can delay if you have an actual holiday booked.

This page has details about deferring:

www.gov.uk/jury-service/delaying-or-being-excused-from-jury-service

The reasons given for deferral are examples, any similar good reason will be taken into account. I had mine deferred due to unreasonable impact on my work given the time of year I was asked to do it.

Can you get some pre Xmas retail work? Even if you have to work evening's & weekends it will help cash flow

Whhhaaaat?! I never knew this, I just assumed you would still be paid (perhaps like SMP where the employer claims it back from govt?) I would outright refuse to do it if it cost me a penny!! I'm public sector so I assume I would just be paid, but you wouldn't see me there if I wasn't!!

Jury service is 10 days. It would only be longer than that if he was selected for a jury for a case and if the trial for that case was longer than the 10 days service.

Will he not get paid from his employer? Has he checked? I know where I work we get paid as normal.

I would get him to ask to defer citing loss of annual leave and holiday booked to see family.

You are, but if you are self employed it is hard to claim it back. I did it in August and my employer paid me in full, but my self employed income was not claimable.

heetud
You can’t refuse.

Check your insurance op. My dh’s company didn’t cover it all and we were panicking but when we looked at the Josh insurance it was covered.

Believe it or not I work full time and already have a part time 13 hour job on top of this. ☹️

So you're working 50 hours a week and only earn 5% of the household income?

Surely you can absorb the loss of income if your DP doesn't get paid while he serves? At that level, half of it will go in tax anyway.

He might not even have to go in. They call loads of people, and only need a small number of them. He’ll call up the night before to see if he is needed, and might not have to do it at all.

It would be, normally, for a maximum of 10 days, so not all of December. He can claim for -

• Up to £64.95 to help cover loss of earnings and the cost of any care or childcare outside of usual arrangements (for more than 4 hours a court, half of that for less)
• £5.71 for food and drink
• the cost of travel to and from court

He should also check his employers policy, as many will contribute for at least some of the period.

He can also request to defer, but bear in mind he can only do that once.