Mr C A Ambrosino v Hmg — 2025

The claimant presented a claim on 10 August 2024 alleging age discrimination. In the form he said he was employed as a full-time carer for "HMG", that he did not work for the respondent in one part of the form, and that he was legally entitled to £11.44 per hour but was receiving about £130 per week. He did not attend the 25 March 2025 hearing, and the tribunal proceeded in his absence.

The tribunal held that it had no jurisdiction under section 120 of the Equality Act 2010 because the claim could only be brought against an employer within section 39, read with section 83(2). It found there was no basis for treating receipt of Carer’s Allowance and the carer element of Universal Credit as creating an employment contract or Crown employment with His Majesty’s Government, and it noted that the statutory scheme for Carer’s Allowance did not amount to gainful employment. The tribunal also noted that the claimant had not produced any contract of employment and that any reliance on section 149 of the Equality Act 2010 did not give rise to a private law cause of action.

The claimant’s application to amend the claim so as to substitute Sir Keir Starmer as respondent was refused because that would not cure the jurisdictional difficulty. The tribunal struck out the claim under Rule 38(1)(a) as scandalous, vexatious, and with no reasonable prospect of success, and it refused the claimant’s application to strike out the response as academic once the claim was struck out. It also observed that the claimant had brought materially similar claims previously and stated that a further similar claim could raise vexatiousness and abuse of process issues. No monetary award was made.