Advice on what to do

Cayenne · 9 October 2019 at 1:59PM

Hi all - first time post here.

I am in a strange situation and I am not sure what the best thing to do is:

1. I have worked at the same company for 13 years now and it is pretty well paid for the area.
2. The business is struggling and I have not yet been paid this month (October 2019). Wages have been late in the past, but the business does not have any guaranteed income due at the minute, although longer term, it could be ok (in 6 months or so).
3. The boss has said the business *may* close, but he is not sure (some type of insolvency I presume.

My questions are as follows:

1. The business will not be able to afford redundancy and I know I can claim this from the governments Insolvency Service - how long does this take?
2. I am stuck in a catch 22 - I can't resign and take up other paid work before a decision to make the business insolvent because I will miss out on redundancy - is this true?
3. I have looked at benefits I can claim if i get made redundant this month and it only amounts to around £73 a week - does this sound right? I have very little savings (almost none - got divorced earlier this year and had to setup on my own again) and no other sources of income.

Any help anyone can give would be really appreciated!

lincroft1710 · 9 October 2019 at 3:31PM

You can resign and take up a job offer if you have one. Redundancy is there to help out the finances until you find another job. It is not an ex gratia payment in recognition of how many years a person has worked for an employer.

tacpot12 · 9 October 2019 at 3:40PM

Don't know how long the redundancy takes to be paid via the insolvency service, but if you call their helpline on Telephone: 0330 331 0020 (Monday to Friday, 9am to 1pm) they should be able to tell you.

You will miss out on the statutory redundancy pay which will be 13 weeks of pay at least for you.

If you are made redundant, you might get more than £73 a week. This depends on whether you have a partner who is earning, whether you have children and if you rent you home or are buying with a mortgage.

There is a good benefits calculator at Entitledto.co.uk. You can plug in your details as they will be if you are made redundant to find out what you are entitled to. Redundancy payments are not taxed and treated as capital for means-tested benefits so you shouldn't lose any benefits due to receiving a redundancy payment, UNLESS the payment is more than £6000 in which case you will start to lose some benefit, and if the redundancy payment is more than £16,000 it will stop you being entitled to any means-tested benefits.

MovingForwards · 9 October 2019 at 6:29PM

Another thing to consider is if your employer goes bump, how many of you are all going to be looking for a job at the same time?

Is it worth hanging on to get redundancy and then find another role? Or would you be better off forgetting about any statutory redundancy and finding another role sooner than later?

I'm assuming you haven't got 3+ months wages saved.

Obviously if you have got a safety net, can find a similar role in next to no time and will wait to see what happens with your employer / stat redundancy pay then maybe hang on.

Advice on what to do

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