Unpaid wages and benefits

[Notjustabrunette]

Hello, hope this is the correct forum for my issue.
I was employed for 10 weeks at a start up company. I was paid (in gross, not through paye as arranged) for the first 2 months. Then I was dismissed at week 10, the reason given was that I wasn’t a good company fit. I had, had some issues with my co workers in that they were never available for meetings or to sign anything off. To be fair I don’t think that this company was their key focus as they were also working on other projects.
Fine, it is what it is. However I haven’t been paid for the last two weeks worked, any notice period (I should be entitled to one week) and holiday pay for holiday not taken.
I have raised this with the company owner (they don’t have an hr department) and with the recruiter.
So far it looks like they are not going to pay me. They have also not paid freelancers for their work either. I am owed in the region of 5k.
Can I take them to the small claimed court? Has anyone done this and been successful? I have done some reading on the matter and it looks like I will have to pay approx £200 in court fees. What I’m thinking is though even if the court agree with me, they still might not pay up.
Does anyone have experience of this with a start up company?
I will add that their website I still up and running and taking customer orders so are still in business.

If you worked there for 10 weeks and got paid 2 months (8 weeks?) how do they owe you 5k? Unless you were on astronomical wages?

Because they owe me for 2 weeks I paid wages, 1 weeks notice period and 6 days holiday.

No, not the small claims court. You can bring a claim for non payment of wages to the employment tribunal.

What do you mean that you /they arranged to not be paid via PAYE? This is, in most cases, a requirement not an option. So you would need to explain that as lack of PAYE might be used to suggest you were not employed by them. This would not change the fact they owe you for work done, but may impact holiday pay and notice period.

We arranged for me to be paid via paye, but they didn’t set it up and paid me in gross. I have emails back and forth where this was discussed and I have given my them NI number. I think the issue was that was their first employee on the pay roll as this is a start up.

@Notjustabrunette

We arranged for me to be paid via paye, but they didn’t set it up and paid me in gross. I have emails back and forth where this was discussed and I have given my them NI number. I think the issue was that was their first employee on the pay roll as this is a start up.

I don’t think whether you have emails discussing it is relevant, it was almost certainly illegal, which somewhat complicates your claim. Has the tax and NI been sorted out now?

They sound a bit disorganised, it would have taken them five minutes to download some payroll software and it takes about five days to register a PAYE scheme, they should have still run payroll even if they didn’t have their payroll number from HMRC.

I don’t think they have sorted out the tax and NI. They have stopped all communication with me. At one point the recruitment company which placed me with them was acting as a mediator, but now communication with them has also stopped. The recruitment company has also not been paid.
You are right, they are completely disorganized. I am glad to not be working for them, but feel that I should be at the very least paid for the work I have done.