Work entering liquidation what do I need to know?

[wtftodo]

It looks like my employer is going into liquidation in the next few days. There is no money to pay anyone including our redundancy, notice period, and days worked this month (I still need to deliver projects until the liquidation officially starts).

I understand we can claim back any money owed form the government. I've no idea how long this takes though, if we have to wait a number of weeks for the liquidators to assess stuff, etc.

Has anyone been through this and if so please can you advise?
Anything else I need to be aware of or prepare for?

What are you delivering if going into liquidation with no hope of being paid? Don't work for free.

You get unpaid wages, statutory redundancy, holiday pay. https://www.gov.uk/your-rights-if-your-employer-is-insolvent This is from the government.

Sign on with the JobCentre asap as that is the date any benefits are back dated to. Remember some benefits are based on contributions.

Thank you. I know I can claim from the gov but I don’t know what sort of timeframe I’m looking at from when liquidator is appointed to being paid by gov. I do know though that I definitely should not apply for JSA yet because the notice pay (whenever it comes) will
invalidate the claim, or reduce it.

Doing as little as possible without derailing projects we are doing with third parties.

Check if your employer has passed all theirs and yours pension contributions to your pension company for the past few months. If they have been having difficulties they may not have.

You should be able to get missing payments paid back by the Government/RPS, but make sure you check asap so you can minimise any losses in investment time.

I had this exact thing happen at a previous employer.

It took a matter of weeks or a month or two for my payments to come from RPS, but it depends on how fast the liquidator works tbh - they need to give you a special reference number. Then I think I got another one after a few more months too. Ended up with about 25% of what I was due in the end.

As for JSA, my employer just went bust one day so there was no pay for anything let alone my 3 months notice pay. I do know that I had to really plead with the JSA man on the phone to backdate my claim for 1 week as apparently you are supposed to just... know you are meant to claim the very day you are unemployed. So just be very prompt with your claim as soon as you know what's what. It also maintains your NI contributions as well so its important for that reason too.

Thank you, will check pensions. And thanks re timeline on RPS. I’m wary of claiming JSA right away because I’ve read that when your PILON (notice pay) comes through it invalidates it even if the government is paying the pilon. But I’ll double check.

Hi , sorry to hear this is happening to you. My company also went insolvent at the end of April. We did not get paid for April and only got CN numbers early May from liquidator. I put my claim in second week of May and still have not been paid my redundancy or holiday owed and wages owed. My understanding is PILON is paid after your notice period is up and the deduct any job seekers you could have claimed from that amount .. or any money you have earnt so for example I have started a temp role and the money I have earnt will be deducted from my PILON.

It all really hinges on how fast the insolvency practitioner is appointed , our employer was naughty and slowed things down by doing a partial sale before going into insolvency even through they verbally told us we were redundant but didn’t write to us ! First letter we all received was second week in May from Insolvency practitioners

Good Luck and do look after yourself 🌸

Thank you Lunawoods this is really helpful. Sorry to hear you’re in a similar boat and I hope you get your money soon. I wondered whether new earnings would affect pilon, not that I’ve found a new job yet. Also I think my employer is doing similar re trying to slow things down… which I understand. Still, I just want to know what is happening and when so I can plan! Thanks again.