How to Claim Redundancy Pay from the Redundancy Payments Service When Your Employer Goes Bust (2026/27)

This guide is general information, not advice.

This guide is for employees whose employer has become insolvent (administration, liquidation, bankruptcy, receivership, a voluntary arrangement or a debt relief order) and who have been made redundant. When the employer cannot pay, the government pays statutory redundancy pay instead, through the Insolvency Service’s Redundancy Payments Service.

At the end you will have a submitted online claim, a reference to track it, and a way to check the figure you are paid. Unpaid wages, holiday pay and notice pay go through the same service and are covered in our guide to claiming unpaid wages or holiday pay; this guide deals with the redundancy payment itself.

Northern Ireland is different. Claims there go to the NI Redundancy Payments Service, run by the Department for the Economy, and disputes go to an Industrial Tribunal. Start from nidirect: insolvency payment claims. The steps below are for England, Scotland and Wales.

Before you start

GOV.UK’s claim for redundancy page lists what the online form asks for:

• Your CN number. The insolvency practitioner or official receiver gives it to you with an RP1 fact sheet. You cannot claim without it.
• Your National Insurance number and an email address.
• Bank or building society details, so you can be paid.
• Your redundancy date, from your official letter of redundancy.
• Your employment dates and how much you were paid.
• Details of any money your employer owes you, and your holiday entitlement and days taken.
• Copies of letters to or from your employer or an employment tribunal.
• Details of any money you still owe your employer.

You must be an employee, and a UK or EEA national or a foreign national with the right to work in the UK. A company director must also have been an employee, and will be asked for evidence. Contractors register as a creditor instead.

Step-by-step

1. Check you qualify for redundancy pay. GOV.UK’s what you can get page says you are normally entitled if you were made redundant, were an employee, and were continuously employed by the insolvent business for 2 years or more. If you were transferred to a new employer before your old one became insolvent, you cannot claim from the government.

2. Get your CN number. If you have not received it, ask the insolvency practitioner or official receiver dealing with the insolvency. GOV.UK says they must tell you how your job is affected and what to do next (your rights).

3. Apply online. Use the claim for redundancy service. One application covers redundancy pay, unpaid wages and holiday pay. You can apply as soon as you have been made redundant.

4. Answer the notice pay question. The form asks whether you want to apply for statutory notice pay. GOV.UK warns that choosing “Yes” does not mean you have applied. You are sent an LN reference later, “usually no more than 12 weeks after you’re dismissed”, and then claim through the separate claim for loss of notice service. You must apply for redundancy first, even if you are not owed any.

5. Keep your reference and watch for letters. The Insolvency Service makes separate payments for each element and sends a letter each time (explaining your redundancy payments). For help with the forms, contact the Redundancy Payments Service on 0330 331 0020 or [email protected], with your case reference or National Insurance number to hand.

6. Check the figure. Use the worked example below. If you think your weekly pay was calculated wrongly, the Insolvency Service says to contact the insolvency practitioner dealing with your redundancy.

Deadlines and what happens next

• 6 months. GOV.UK: “You must apply for redundancy pay within 6 months of being dismissed.”
• Processing. “It usually takes up to 6 weeks to get your payment but can take longer.” Your details are checked against the employer’s records, and you are paid only if the records show money is owed (after you apply).
• Tax. GOV.UK says “Statutory redundancy pay under £30,000 is not taxable” (tax and National Insurance). Notice pay is treated differently: the Insolvency Service deducts tax at a basic rate of 20% and National Insurance from holiday pay, arrears of pay, notice worked but not paid, loss of notice compensation and protective awards. If you think too much was taken, you can apply to HMRC for a refund.
• If it is rejected. Contact the Redundancy Payments Service, who will explain why. If you disagree, you can make a claim to the employment tribunal against the Secretary of State for Business and Trade and your former employer. Tribunal time limits apply, so do not wait.
• Money above the cap. If you are owed more than the maximum the service can pay, the Insolvency Service says you can register as a creditor in the insolvency for the rest.

Common mistakes

• Waiting for the dust to settle. The 6-month limit runs from dismissal, not from when the insolvency is resolved.
• Thinking “Yes” to notice pay is a claim. It is not; wait for the LN reference and make the second claim.
• Using take-home pay. The payment is based on your gross weekly pay, before tax and National Insurance.
• Counting part years. Only full years of service count, and at most 20.
• Counting on your contractual redundancy package. The government pays the statutory amount, capped; anything above that is a claim in the insolvency.

Worked example

GOV.UK sets the rate per full year of service by age: half a week’s pay for each year under 22, one week’s pay for each year aged 22 to 40, and one and a half weeks’ pay for each year aged 41 or older, counting at most 20 years. For redundancies on or after 6 April 2026, a week’s pay is capped at £751 and the maximum statutory redundancy pay is £22,530 (GOV.UK: redundancy pay). The cap is set by the Employment Rights (Increase of Limits) Order 2026; it was £719 for redundancies before that date.

Say you are made redundant in September 2026 aged 45, after 10 full years with the business, earning £900 a week gross:

Full years of service	Age band	Weeks per year	Weeks
4	41 or older	1.5	6
6	22 to 40	1	6
Total			12

Your £900 is capped at £751, so the payment is 12 × £751 = £9,012. That is under £30,000, so GOV.UK says it is not taxable. Uncapped, it would have been 12 × £900 = £10,800; the £1,788 difference is not paid by the government.

Our redundancy calculator runs the same sum for your own age, service and pay.

Related reading

• Statutory redundancy pay 2026/27 - how the entitlement works when your employer can pay.
• Redundancy calculator - your statutory figure in seconds.
• How to claim unpaid wages or holiday pay - the wages, holiday and notice elements of an insolvency claim.