Question 19
My employer has become insolvent and there are pension contributions owing to my pension scheme. What can I do to recover them?
If a company becomes insolvent, it is often possible for some unpaid pension contributions owed to the pension scheme to be claimed from the National Insurance Fund. This is usually the quickest and most practical method to recover unpaid contributions.
When a company becomes insolvent, an insolvency practitioner is appointed to manage the company’s affairs. They should work with the pension scheme administrators to identify what pension contributions are outstanding and then submit the claim to the National Insurance Fund for payment on your behalf. Only contributions unpaid in the 12 months leading up to the insolvency can be claimed.
You may want to contact the insolvency practitioner to make sure this is being done.
You can also bring a complaint to us, but we can only direct your employer to make the contributions it owes to your pension scheme. As companies which are insolvent generally have insufficient assets, they may not have enough money to do this, so any directions we make may not lead to any practical results.
Related questions
We cannot decide on your eligibility for an ill health pension, but we can look at how a decision about an ill health pension was made and if it was made by the right decision maker.
We would look at whether the right decision-maker has:
- Followed the scheme’s rules correctly;
- Asked the right questions; and
- Only taken into account relevant evidence and ignored irrelevant evidence.
If we decide that the decision-maker has not reached its decision properly, we can direct them to revisit their decision and make it again. However, we cannot prevent them from reaching the same decision as long as it is made properly.
Contributions deducted from your pay must be paid to the scheme by the 22nd of the following month (if paid electronically) or by the 19th of the following month in any other case.
If this has not happened, you should first raise this with your employer and give them the chance to put things right. To find out more, please see our ‘Complaining to the party/parties at fault’ factsheet.
If you are unhappy with their response or remain dissatisfied please submit a completed application to us along with relevant paperwork and supporting documents.
More information can be found in our ‘Workplace pensions – unpaid pension contributions’ factsheet.