Jury service expenses are ridiculous

[Dinosaurus86]

Posting here partly for traffic, partly because it is ridiculous and wondering if anyone has experience.

Have just been called for jury service. I am PT self employed. Have a one year old not in any formal childcare. I also have a just turned four year old who is in nursery for two full days and one further short one / week. The wording of my letter seems to suggest that you can get a maximum amount of £64/ day to cover both loss of earnings and additional childcare costs. Does anyone know if this is correct? Because it is less than even the full day rate for nursery before I even take any loss of earnings into account - and that is just for one child - no idea what I’d do about the younger one. We have some family but not enough to cover full time, and she isn’t used to being away from me. Not sure if I should attempt to defer or if will just have the same problems in a few months… help!!!

Defer your jury service. It really is that ridiculous.

Completely agree. I haven't been called but I'm also self employed with two kids and it's on my radar. I'd defer and hope I wasn't called again for a while. The "expenses" are an absolute joke.

Tell them you’re breastfeeding - they’ll defer you

You can decline on basis of not having a place for your 1 year old. If you got a murder case you could be stuck on it for months!

I’d defer, in your circumstances.

I wish they’d call me.

@Dinosaurus86 there are ways to get out of jury service, people regularly get out of doing it. There are some good threads on here regarding that. Realistically there are lots of other people they can call on who won't take the same financial hit you would.

It's a shame you can't swap or effectively offer it to someone who can and wants to do it

When I deferred due to Bf a newborn, I got sent another date to attend in exactly a years time!

Yes it's that pathetic.
We need to keep juries though and I'm glad so many here would like to and would be able to do it without it causing as much hardship as someone in your circumstances.

Yes I guess I’ll ask to defer. The funny thing is that I would quite like to do it! But they don’t exactly make it easy. I do still feed 1yo before her nap and to sleep - I wasn’t sure if I should mention it as she’s not exactly a tiny baby.

I have had to serve 3 times! I've been cited a forth time, but I'm young enough to still have children at home. I've deferred the last couple of citations, but have received yet another one for March, which I will try to defer again.

It's ridiculous- the expenses offered dont even cover minimum wage, and that's before you add on childcare, transport, etc. I agree that we should do our duty, BUT I feel v hard done by being called quite so often.

I was called up about 20 years ago , i explained i had to drive my 2 young children to school and it would be impossible to then get to court at the designated time , they didn't ask if there was anyone to help me so i didn't tell them if there was or wasn't😉
They did ask me how long this situation would last and i answered according to how long my youngest would be at that school.
I was excused not deferred and so far fingers crossed have not been called again.
I cannot believe the courts/government think it's acceptable for people on jury service to potentially end up out of pocket.

@tsmainsqueeze, I dont think you'd get off so easily now, unfortunately.

Yup it really is that ridiculous.
My DH was called a few months ago and had to defer as he can't take the hit on earnings.
Flip side is I would love to be called and my work pay full pay for JS so. There should be a register that you can volunteer yourself on, surely it would be easier!

Somebody could potentially end up homeless due to doing this Ridiculous

You really don't. The whole process is a shambles. As well as the woefully inadequate expenses for childcare, travel and loss of earnings, they'll keep you waiting around for hours, if not days with no information and you're just expected to put up with it.

Plus most of the population are too stupid to follow the instructions of the judge about basing a decision only on evidence presented and not what they found by googling or 'how you could tell they did it by looking at them'.

So is it accurate that the £64 is supposed to cover both loss of earnings and childcare? It’s not covered separately? Nursery for DS is £72/day and the summons falls in half term, when he doesn’t usually attend.

I was called about 25 years ago, possibly a bit more. The DC were about 5 and 2. I wrote and said I'd happily do it providing the court could reimburse the cost of a temporary nanny, which with agency fees, tax and ni was about £800 pw. I was excused, possibly deferred. I have never heard from them again.

I am self employed but because I was a member of the FSB (Federation of Small Businesses) I was able to claim £250 from their insurance

I would love to do JS and have never been called, I do think there should be a way of “opting out” for those who can’t afford the financial hit, it shouldn’t leave people so out of pocket!

Yes kicking myself slightly as this has been on my radar and contemplated insurance but haven’t had the money to pay for extra insurance…

That’s ridiculous. I don’t really see how self employed people can be expected to do it for that amount of compensation.

I had similar, had one infant at nursery (only booked in twice a week and nursery were happy to write a letter to say they didn’t have space to offer extra days -which was true) and two kids at primary school that I was primary carer for (drop off/pick up). I asked to defer but they excused me as I think it was obvious my situation wouldn’t change any time soon

My day rate is more than ten times that, before childcare costs. Insane.

Per day?