Redundancy

[nona suomy]

Not sure if this belongs in this category but here goes? My Mom has continued to work after retirement and has continuous service in her job of about 22 years. If the business goes under, will she still be entitled to Redundancy?

[Miss Zippy]

You don't say how old your mum is, but if she is 65 or over then she would not be entitled to redundancy - that's just the law I'm afraid. (If a company chooses to pay over and above the statutory requirement, as many do, then that's another matter, but this wouldn't be the case in an insolvency situation where there would not be money available to pay employees over and above what they're entitled to.) The short and generic answer is that employees of insolvent companies can apply to the Secretary of State for Trade for redundancy payment. If an employee is statutorily entitled to more than the Sec of State is legally allowed to pay them, then the employee needs to make a claim against his or her employer for the balance. Preferential creditors will usually be paid before such claims, however.

[Starsky]

Go to www.acas.org.uk - if you use the A-Z index there's a few listings under "redundancy". Failing that they have a telephone helpline. However, as Miss Z points out if she is past retirement age there may be no entitlement.

[nona suomy]

Thanks both. She is 63 but I am unclear as to whether this is classed as past retirement as women can retire at 60 or whether for the purposes of Law, 65 is the retirement age. I'll check out the link.