To think this is illegal and constitutes theft?

[BarbaraVineFan]

My employer has recently gone into administration and all 120 employees were made redundant. While we were employed we were all paying into a pension scheme using the salary sacrifice model, so we could choose how much of our salary to contribute to our pension and there was also a fixed contribution from our employer.

It turns out that for the last couple of months, the employer had not only made no pension contributions for some staff, but that their contribution to the pension scheme has been withdrawn from their salary but has not been paid in!

We are being advised to go through the government to claim money back from the administrators, but surely this is theft? And therefore should be dealt with as such? If anyone is a financial lawyer and can shed some light on this, I would really appreciate it but also welcome any opinions on what we should do in this situation.

It happens.

Helpful, @Amiiee

@BarbaraVineFan get this moves to Legal for best advice

Yes it's theft.

Report to Pensions Regulator, take their advice on whether to involve the police.

The govt will pay your redundancy pay.

You'll be logged as a creditor to the firm by the administrator who will make you quite a high priority (after their own fees, of course) but if there's no money, there's no money. So, unfortunately, you're unlikely to get it back.

In my experience the Administrators look into the conduct of the directors. You could raise your question with them while also following @Negroany advice.

This is my field. There are mechanisms by which the government will repay it. You’ll most likely get the money back if you follow the advice you’re being given but it sounds like you also want “justice” / retribution which is entirely different.

Company did same to my husband , pension regulator did nothing - made a tribunal claim for pay , holidays etc and he just changed the company name. Shouldn’t be allowed to trade again before satisfying debts is my view but it happens all the time

You need to report it to The Pensions Regulator. They have the power to make this right for you, and can and do prosecute. You don’t need a financial lawyer.

Why don’t you write to Steve Webb’s column in the daily mail. Despite what you might think about the newspaper itself, Steve is excellent and often supports people with queries and unsatisfactory outcomes such as this.