Insolvent. No pension paid last month?

[Oblomov23]

I've had 2 part time jobs for donkeys years. One Company I worked for went insolvent in April. I did the payroll, so paid the weekly staff, In April. Monthly staff hadn't been paid since end March.

But monthly staff. ie Me, and others : from insolvency service I have claimed back redundancy, unpaid wages, holiday, notice. So all good. I appreciate that Most of what I was owed, I got.

But what the insolvency doesn't cover, is pension for a that last month. You can't claim for it back.

Monthly paid staff are disadvantaged. Because weekly payroll was run. Weekly Employees had their employee pension deducted. And the employer pension calculated. Admittedly it wasn't paid across to the pension provider. But insolvency will claim it back for them using RP15.

But because payroll wasn't run for monthly employees in April. I don't get the employer pension.

I worked for nearly a month. I eventually got my wages. But I wasn't paid the employer pension. It just seems unfair.

How much money are you talking about losing out on?

Unless you were on seriously good money, I can't see this being worth pursuing.

No, pension arrears are a first preference creditor. They won't be paid by the RPS but if there's any money in the company that's a high priority for payment. Contact the insolvency practitioner dealing with the case (they should have written to you, or look on companies house if you don't know who they are).
It may take them a while to work out what there is and what the order of preference will be (sounds odd but some things come above first preference such as secured debt).

She literally just needs to write an email to register her claim.

Ok admittedly it's not a huge amount of money. But the principal rattles.

I have contacted the company supporting the insolvency practitioner with all employee matters.

He replied:

As you have not been paid April Salaries you cannot make a claim for the pensions, as they have not been deducted and therefore you have not had a loss.

There is NO claim there, the only claim with regard to pensions, is if you have been paid a salary from the company and the pensions have been deducted and not paid over to the pension provider.

You do not have a claim for pensions for payments made to you by the insolvency service, they are NOT your employer.

I cannot explain this anymore. you have no claim for any pensions in April, as you were not paid salary for April.

Oh I see that sucks. So you're missing the employer contribution for the month. At least you've been paid gross of pension for the employee contribution so you can make a voluntary contribution to your scheme for that amount. It sounds like all the previous contributions were paid up to date.
Thankfully you're getting most of what you're owed. I feel for you. It's a horrible situation to be in.

Actually Jan, feb and March wasn't paid across. But they'll get that with RP15.

I know it's not a lot of money. And yes I got most of what I was owed: nearly all the parts: salary, redundancy, notice, holiday. So I know it's not a huge amount of money I've lost.

But it's just so wrong. I mean as a principle. I willingly worked for that last month. I've now got my salary etc. But never having been involved in insolvency I didn't know that I wouldn't get the employer pension. Weekly staff did. But monthly staff don't. How can that be right? That weekly paid staff get preferential treatment over monthly. It's just wrong. Or, it feels a bit unfair.