Right to Retirement Gift?.

[JaneDuffell]

I am retireing after 10 years service and according to my contract of employment I should receive a gift amounting to £250.
My manager has advised me because my pension will be much higher than average for the time I have been with them as I have paid for additional years service, combined with the fact I was receiving a pension from my previous employers, the fact I live at the most expensive address and always ran the best car in the workplace while working for them he feels a gift is not justified in my case.
He has also said even though the amount is detailed in my contract there is never an entitlement to a gift.
Is he right?.

Jane

[factor-fiction]

It's a shame the OP hasn't had chance to return to comment on our responses.

Hello carandrog. Your situation seems very harsh, although I doubt the primary motive of the employer was to minimise the scheme's pension costs.
I'm puzzled by what you say about redundancy. If it was a genuine redundancy then I hope that redundancy payment was made (although judging by the size of the pension maybe he hadn't been there long). But I don't understand the bit about transferring him to another department so they could advertise his job- that suggests it wasn't a redundancy. If he was being transferred then he would still have been an employee wouldn't he?
Did you ever get anything in writing saying his role had been terminated? Firms do sometimes terminate employment on grounds of capability in these situations but only after a careful process, and notice pay should have been paid.
Maybe you should contact the company now, even though may be a few years later, and ask them to clarify and explain what happened.