Long time lurker, rare poster...
I run a small business with just one employee, currently paid £1700 per month for an average of 35 hours a week, all above board with tax/NI/pension. Worked for just over 5 years.
I was thinking of winding up the business in a few months because frankly I don't want the stress anymore. So I would have been making said employee redundant in a few months time. I don't think this would have come as a surprise.
However said employee has now been diagnosed with a nasty lifelimiting disease and the prospects of him returning to work are slim, certainly not to the hours he was doing. He's been off for a couple of months now, having had a couple of other periods off sick. Gave three weeks full pay then SSP (contract was 3 days full in any 12 month period) as he's never had any sick leave before and has been so reliable.
But frankly I have had enough now. I can't juggle the business on my own and I am going to wind it down by the New Year. Which means making him redundant at this dreadful time. It feels morally wrong but I can't keep paying someone who can't work in a business that no longer exists.
I plan to give a decent redundancy payout, better than the statutory because he has been/is so good and I couldn't have managed without him. I think this will be tax free. But I can't see him managing to get another job. And before I have the conversation I guess I want to know if anyone knows what else he will be entitled to claim? E.G I assume it is easier for benefits claims if he has been made redundant rather than resigned? And the post very definitely is redundant.
Sorry for the length, grateful for any advice. Feel dreadful that I am having to do this but even more dreadful for him and his family and what they will have to face in the coming months.