Wife on Maternity receiving SMP.. Company in administration

neas

Hi all,

Wife is currently 4-5 months into her Maternity Leave and has found out from the news (not her company I might add) that they are in administration.

The company are optimistic a buyer can be found but I doubt it.

Questions:

1. So presuming everyone gets sacked/looses job then what is the process to try and ensure my wife gets her remaining SMP?

2. If the company does get bought what rights do my wife have? She is in a pretty weak position being that new owner won't have seen her at all and she is not even working there at moment due to maternity.

3. Shes only been there 1.4 years so not entitled to redudancy but does she get any lieu of notice? If so how does that get paid if company is bankrupt?

tizerbelle

Can't answer all of your questions but for the first one this will answer:

What do I do if my business becomes insolvent?
If you become insolvent after the start of the 15th week before the expected week of childbirth and before the start of your employee’s pay period, HMRC will pay your employee’s SMP. If you become insolvent during the SMP pay period, HMRC will pay your employee’s SMP from the week in which you became insolvent. You should advise your employee to contact the Statutory Payment Disputes Team on 0191 22 55221. It will also help if you, or the administrator, liquidator or other similar office, can let us know which of your employees are affected. Then we can pay them as soon as possible

[FONT=HMRCModena,HMRCModena]Source: HMRC E15 (2012) SMP Employers Helpbook [/FONT]