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 😫

Surely you're not bringing in only 5% of the household income if you're working 50 hours a week. On minimum wage that's a fair bit over £20k a year take home pay.

I guess that was a typo.

What's his employer said? I'm public sector and I got paid but appreciate it may not be the same for everyone.
I would also look at deferring if he can.

Maybe not 95% but he earns more plus we've drained all our savings on a deposit buying our new house. Long story short, losing his salary in December is really shit. We have lots of outgoings ( like most people) in January that we are relying on both wages. 😕

OP, I've recently completed my second stint of jury service - July/August this year. I think you would have a strong reason to defer if your DP doesn't receive payment from his employer and the expenses only would seriously impact you as a family.

I deferred initially because we have an adult DD with severe learning difficulties who lives in her own apartment in a managed centre close to home and the date allocated was very inconvenient for our visits with DD.

There was no issue with deferring! I just had to give 3 preferred dates over the next 12 months and they just came back with my second choice date. I heard of others being totally excused purely for financial reasons but worse case scenario you should certainly be able to defer to a time within the next twelve months which could prove a little easier. You just complete the form to request deferment which should be included with your original summons.

With regards to the expenses, you can't put in a claim until your jury service is completed - except in very exceptional circumstances/very long trial - and, certainly, in my experience, it took almost 8 weeks to be paid in full.😡. Fortunately, I could afford to wait but it was seriously annoying and I could easily see how some people would suffer severe difficulties waiting to be paid.

Yes it is roughly £65 per day to cover employment plus £5.70 per day lunch allowance for which you don't need receipts. You do need receipts for everything else and are expected to use the cheapest form of transport.🙄 I spent close to £100 of my own money just on travel and had to wait 8 weeks to receive that despite the paperwork stating 7-10 days from submitting receipts. 🤬

Honestly, seriously try to be excused or defer as I can well understand how you feel at present. People are excused for far lesser reasons. Good luck!

He can take the annual leave for starters, if that means he gets a full days wages. No benefit to not taking it if he'd lose it anyway. You get paid an expenses amount for jury service I think, but it won't match your wages if you're a higher earner. If you haven't bought presents yet, you'll have to tell people you can't afford them, your DC will probably be getting presents from other family members so that will have to do. If you've already bought the presents you'll have to see about getting a refund. If you can't afford food you'll have to get a referral for a food bank sometimes. If you've got a mortgage ask them if you can have a payment holiday for December. If you've got savings you'll have to spend them on getting by until DH is back at work.

Have you checked whether his employer will pay his salary while he is doing jury service? Some do.

If they don't, he can ask for a deferral until he has enough annual leave to be able to take 2 weeks holiday for the jury service because of the financial impact of his loss of earnings on your family. It might not be on the list of official reasons but IME they are usually sympathetic.

Or ask his manager to say that they can't let him have time off at such short notice.

You'd be arrested and I believe there may be a prison sentence. If you refused. It's not an option.

If your husband is earning 95% of the household income and you're working more than FT hours, then he just be a very high earner indeed, and you presumably had substantial savings. Surely you left yourself a bit of a cushion when buying your house?

You can defer on the grounds it would cause financial hardship. My ex did this as we would not have been able to afford our outgoings without his salary.

They didn’t ask for evidence.

My partner also withdrew a few years ago (2018) . He was self employed and again we wouldn’t have been able to cover outgoings without his salary. At the time we were thinking of moving abroad so he also stated he wouldn’t be able to do it in 12 months. Again no evidence was requested and they just wrote to say his reason had been accepted. We didn’t move in the end. Think he’s a bit gutted about missing out as he’s not been asked again.

@IAmNeon I can tell you now I would not do it if it put my family in financial difficulty, I would find a way out of it if I needed to! As it happens I'd be interested to do it, and likely be paid so it's hypothetical, but think it is shocking someone could be out of pocket doing it.

I worry that if I were falsely accused, the set up for jury duty means that anyone like me, my true peer, couldn't serve. The reimbursement is far too little, and anyone with any nous gets out of it.

The whole thing needs reform.

Although if the reimbursement is tax free, then it may not be as bad as first appears? And it is only a week.

I agree, what a ridiculous system!

Unhelpful, and more than a bit smug. Do you feel better after that?

Op instead of panicking, just get him to defer. It’s not a problem.

Then make sure you have a months wage saved for when he’s called back and you will be fine. No need for stress!

I have worked for 6 different companies over the last 20 years and all of them have paid employees full pay during jury service for at least the first 2 weeks. Are you sure your DH's company won't pay him as normal? The other option if money is tight would be for him to keep the annual leave he has booked so that he does get paid in full.

DD got called recently, at the time she was at uni and it was generally a bad time with hand ins, etc. she just went online and deferred it for a more convenient time.

I've always wondered how it works if your wage supports your family, you don't get paid by your employer during jury service, and you are only entitled to the small amount the court may agree to pay weeks later after they've processed your claim. How can anyone be expected to make a reasoned decision while stressing about how they'll actually be able to pay their bills?

I think employers should pay employees while on jury service and be able to claim the full cost back. For the self employed, there should be a way of evidencing loss of earnings. After all, the Goverment weren't shy about handing furlough money out during the pandemic, where there's a will, there's a way.

Can't he use the two weeks of his annual leave - that way he will still get paid for those weeks?

I felt fine before, thanks.

There are plenty of people on very low incomes who struggle to make ends meet. I have great sympathy for them. My sympathy is limited, however, for super-high earners who fail to plan properly.

Have you actually checked with his employer (am assuming he’s not self employed) to see if they’ll pay him
as normal?

my husband was selected and his employer is the type to wriggle out of anything so I was very surprised when they said he’d get paid as normal and it wouldn’t need to be taken as annual leave. So for him in his job, the time out is practically a free holiday.

don’t panic yet.

@biggerthanadonkey Read the replies telling you that he can defer it. There is great information there.

I’ve been called a couple of times. You can defer it, but only once, so if he defers in December then he will be on the hook for it at some point in 2024.

Also, when I did it, both times my employer paid me the difference between my salary and the fee that the government pay, so I wasn’t out of pocket. In fact I was slightly better off as they feed you at jury duty!

This is a tricky stance to take, you can defer but only once, after that you do have to do jury service.

I also think if you were one day to end up falsely accused and in court, or you had a family member in court, you would absolutely want and expect them to be able to be seen by a jury of their peers. You can’t have it both ways and without people doing jury service there is no fair system.

There is a payment you receive for it but as others have said its not your usual day rate.

Has he actually been chosen by the defendant/solicitor? He may still not get picked.

He needs to speak to his employer and find out what they do in terms of salary. He can probably defer - if he tells them he has a holiday booked that is not a lie, it's just that it's actually annual leave. Read all the information he's been sent and get him to pick up the phone to the jury service people at the court.

My manager made me defer when I was called for jury service. I didn't lose any salary because a decent employer recognises jury service is a public duty and only in limited circumstances can you be excused. I claimed the daily maximum and work topped up to my usual salary.

@Catleveltired
That's actually a very valid point you make, and one I hadn't thought of.
I'm following this thread as I'm down for jury service in January, and debating whether to request a deferment, but for health, not financial reasons.
If "anyone with any nous" gets out of doing jury service and/or simply can't afford to, then you're right - those that do end up on the jury panel are not going to be your "true peers", and not a comprehensive representation of society.
I just can't see the renumeration for jurors being increased any time soon.