Question: ILR Fees & Company policies

[Gary 04]

Hi there Legal Beagles team,

My family and I have been in the UK for close to 5 years under a Tier 2 General visa and are applying for ILR.
We are in the country based on my employer's sponsorship.
BRP’s fees for my family and I were paid in 2016 and 2019 by my employer.
When our BRP's were last extended in 2019 my employers advised that they would pay for the full 2021 ILR fees, and that a clawback clause would be inserted into my contract.
I agreed that this would be a fair option. Although this was a verbal discussion, my intention was to honour this agreement.

More recently I raised the topic of our ILR application with our HR team and they advised that they would start the process with our company lawyers(as per previous applications).
However they have since come back to me & stated that as they have never had a clear policy re this topic, they have conducted a bench marking and believe that I should fund all fees related to my family.
I reminded them of the verbal/gentleman's agreement and they are ignoring this and HR are pushing their position. There was never a policy in place and they have quickly created one and are referring to this.
I advised that this is both unprofessional and unfair as I have not planned for these fees , I did not sign up to any policy, and in exactly 1 week our current BRP’s expire so I really don't have any options to secure another job elsewhere.
I have also reminded them of the significant contribution that I have made to the company over the last 5 years which is evident as per performance appraisals and via promotions/awards afforded to me.

They have not even shared this mysterious policy with me…surely this borders on illegal in addition to being highly unprofessional?
My position is as per what was agreed previously which is a claw-back clause introduction.
Thank you
Gary

[ULA]

So do you have anything in writing/updated contract confirming payment of the ILR fees for 2021 in writing? Given that there was to be an agreed clawback clause presumably on the basis of you left within xx amount of time after the fees were paid you would have to repay them. For a clawback clause to be effective you would have needed to sign your written agreement to this so this should have all been dealt with at the time.

[Gary 04]

Thank you for your feedback. Unfortunately i don't have anything in writing. The HR team advised that they would insert the claw-back clause at the point of ILR application being done. It's an unfortunate situation as i assumed the company would not backtrack on their own proposal. With he new policy that they have quickly put together in the last week, should this be provided to me? It has not been provided nor is it available in the relevant section on the company intranet where individuals can view policies. Thank you

[ULA]

As always in matters such as this and I appreciate you went on trust but it really is much better to ensure you get verbal agreements followed up in writing.

I would suggest that you ask them to foward you a copy of the new policy as soon as possible given the time issue.