Northern Ireland Redundancy Payments Service - Bonus vs Protective Award claims?

nimags

Hello, hoping that I can benefit from advice from any MSE'ers who have previously received statutory redundancy payments directly from the N.Ireland Redundancy Payments Service (RPS), in the situation where your former employer was insolvent.!

Last year, I claimed the following payments from NI RPS:

1) Statutory Redundancy Pay
2) Statutory Notice Pay
3) Accrued & Unpaid 2012 Annual Leave
4) Unpaid 2011 Contractual Bonus

The NI RPS have already paid me nos 1 & 2 above. ! They are still working on no.3.

I am also in the midst of a claim for a protective award with the Northern Ireland Industrial Tribunal, having sought and obtained consent from the insolvency court to pursue this against my insolvent ex-employer.

(Protective awards may be issued by the Tribunal as punishment for failure of an employer to consult in a collective redundancy situation, and while the consultation period ought to have been 30 days based on the numbers involved, it is my understanding that in determining an award, the tribunal will normally start at 90 days protective award, and only reduce this if there are mitigating circumstances. ! However, where the employer is insolvent .. this award is paid out NOT by the employer, but by the NI RPS, who apply a 'cap' on payment equivalent to 8 weeks x £430 ... so this award is potentially worth as much as £3440 to me ((and yes .... the £430 weekly amount is correct, as the redundancies occurred before this rate increased earlier this year)).

My question relates to no. 4 (bonus) and how that may interact with my claim for a protective award, since these are paid from the same 'pot' of RPS money, i.e. the 8 weeks x £430 (£3440 total)?

The RPS tell me that they are in a position to pay no.4 to me now .. however it will not be the full amount ... they say that because the bonus related to the 2011 year in full, they can only pay 8 weeks worth of it, which is a rather small amount and certainly nowhere near the £3440 limit.

I asked the NI RPS whether, if I proceeded to accept the bonus payment, it would mean that I had 'used up' my 8 weeks ... and whether I would therefore still be able to be paid a proportion of my (anticipated) protective award, up to the overall cap and limit of £3440, however they have refused to answer this, and there is no published guidance to advise on this scenario.

So, have any of you got any recent-ish experience of claiming BOTH contractual bonus and protective awards from the N.Ireland RPS, and if so, how were the two payments calculated?

Thanks in advance for any advice,

Mags