Hopefully you won’t be, of course. But the Husband was made redundant back at the end of February. He had just hours notice that he’d be receiving his last weekly pay cheque that day and that’s that. He’d been there for 18 years, since leaving college, so even though we’d known the company was struggling, we had no idea that they were to become insolvent that day.
As his boss was declaring himself bankrupt, it actually didn’t occur to us that we may receive redundancy money. It felt unfair not to, after 18 years of hard work, but then if he didn’t have it, he didn’t have it, and of course we’d never have been wanting to sue him – 18 years of just the two of them means 18 years of friendship, too. But then I was chatting to my sister-in-law about it and she mentioned statutory redundancy pay from the government. Ah, we’d not even thought of that. But my husband was one of the fortunate ones who’d found a new job, so we wouldn’t get it, would we? Well, my brother-in-law did, and he’d started in a new job, too. So, I made a couple of calls and it turned out that, yes, we may well be entitled to something, so an RP1 form was duly sent to us. We were advised that as soon as the case was with the courts, there would be a receiver appointed and that they would be in touch with us in due course to help us make our claim. How long can that take? Ah, depends on the case, the court, could be weeks, could be months. Vague, then!
And so we waited. And we waited. And then waited a bit longer. Just over 5 months went by, and the waiting seemed a bit much. I called the court for advice on how the case and was told that they couldn’t disclose anything to me, but for the Husband to email them an enquiry about it. So I drafted it up, and he sent it over. We heard nothing. So he called them and it turns out that the case was closed ages ago and we could just send the form in whenever we liked, no need for a case number or anything. Right, so when were you going to contact us then? Erm, never….
We filled the form in that evening, and noticed that you do need to claim within the first 6 months. We were a week away from 6 months. No-one would have contacted us, not one person advised us we were entitled to make a claim at any stage.
After posting off the form, we heard nothing for 3 weeks, and then a letter advising us that as they’d not received the information they requested a fortnight earlier (a letter we did not receive) they’d have to decline the case. Aaah! So we called, we emailed and they acknowledged the forms we sent on. Another 3 weeks of waiting and a chase up call and finally, finally, the settlement has arrived.
‘Frustrating’ doesn’t quite cover it!
What have your experiences been, if you’ve been in this boat, too?
We thankfully haven’t been in this position and neither would I want to be, but friends of mine are still going through a redundancy now after 12months of being made redundant, it is a lengthy process!!
It really is, and we were incredibly fortunate to have found a new income quickly. My worry, is that no-one even let us know we were entitled to any redundancy money, at any point.
Unfortunately I must be a bit of a Jonah but I’ve been laid off or made redundant 5 or 6 times now in just over 30 years of working !! But I’ve never needed to sort it out myself as the company laying me off always did it, so I don’t quite understand why you needed to run around yourself !! I was lucky too a couple of times as I had another position lined up too. Sadly I never made 18 years…..I wish. Hope you spend it wisely !!
Love Lynda XX
Oh no, that is so unfortunate! I think because the company itself folded, there was no-one else to sort it, but the total lack of anyone telling us we were entitled to claim and what to do was appalling. Oh, we have exciting plans like replacing windows and doing the driveway – all thrilling stuff! Thanks, Lynda x
Blimey, I can se why you were a bit fed up! How naughty (and not unexpected) that you had no idea about any of this. I’m so glad you managed to get it all sorted x
Nope, you’re right, I guess, not unexpected. Frustrating, though! Thank you, at least we go there in the end x
My mom was in a similar situation when the company she worked for went bankrupt. She was lucky to receive a payment from the government which helped until she got a new job.
It does make a difference, I was just disappointed that no-one actually informed us about it.
My other half and I have both been made redundant in the last year (we both worked for the same company). Fortunately the company treated us well and we were advised of all relevant entitlements – I think it was probably because they were making so many redundancies. We both managed to get new jobs so our redundancy payment went towards a new boiler, almost as exciting as a driveway!
It’s so dull, isn’t it?! Glad you were treated well x