Donate SIGN UP

Redundancy and Bankruptcy

Avatar Image
6RCS27@CW | 08:43 Sun 17th Jan 2010 | Personal Finance
13 Answers
Interesting subject this-a friend of mine is imminently going to be made redundant at the end of Feb and after working for her firm for 20years is going to receive a redundancy payment of nearly 60K (lucky her!!).Anyway last year in Nov she and her husband were declared bankrupt as a result of their business going down the pan.
Now heres the rub-is she obliged to notify the Official Receiver of the impending cash lump sum as she is bankrupt BEFORE being in receipt ? .
Has the OR got the right and/or the ability to ascertain what bank/building accounts she holds and can he determine the value of them?
I know that if she got the cash before the declaration then he would have got his hands on it as obviously it is an asset and would be shared out to her creditors.
Any advice and/or relevant websites that may be of use would be greatly appreciated
Thankyou in advance.
Gravatar

Answers

1 to 13 of 13rss feed

Best Answer

No best answer has yet been selected by 6RCS27@CW. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.

For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.
-- answer removed --
Eddie is not wrong.

Any money received during the bankruptcy belongs to the Trustee in Bankruptcy.
She'd thus be well-advised to take proper advice on this before the scenario happens.
One way may be to ask the employer to pay it directly into her pension fund. That way she never 'sees' the money until all of this will be over. I do know that this is a method by which one can avoid being liable for income tax on redundancy payments over £30k - so I wonder if it also works for her circumstances.
Of course that does mean that the money is locked up until she retires - at which 25% of it can come back out as cash.
-- answer removed --
Yes she can take early retirement and draw the 25% tax free cash provided she meets the age rules (currently 50+ but rises to 55+ I think in April 2010) at the time she draws it
Yes - as factor says - that has always been the case in the sense that it is part of the pension rules by which HMRC operates. However she would need to establish it is within the rules of here employer's scheme (or personal pension fund).
All I am saying is that she needs to find a legal way of avoiding having the £60k in redundancy payment until the bankrupcy is discharged. Sneaky, perhaps, but nothing more than other tax-avoidance schemes that people get up to.
There's probably other ways - it depends whether there is flexibility to negotiate with the employer over the terms of the redundancy - in this case not the amount but the timing by which it is paid out. It depends when the discharge occurs - 12 months after???
She needs to be careful.

The Bankruptcy attaches to any assets in which the Debtor has a beneficial interest. She has a beneficial interest in funds going into the pension fund.

Under the redundancy, she is entitled to receive the redundancy payment. If she does not receive it, the Trustee will want to find out why not.

Your friend will say that the employer paid the money to her pension fund.

The Trustee will characterise this as:

"... entered into an arrangement with the intention to prejudice the interest of her creditors."

On that basis, the Trustee might not only get hold of the money, but could also ask the Court to extend the term of the Bankruptcy, and to impose conditions relating to future earnings after the Bankruptcy is discharged.
joggerjayne's assessment is verly likely to be 'spot on'.
Which is precisely why I said she should seek proper tax/legal advice, Jayne. Perhaps you are one.
It is "after acquired property" & she has 21 days to notify the OR of it. The OR then has 42 days to claim it (which they undoubtedly will!). I do not think the idea of putting it into the pension will work because the OR can claim any excessive payments made into a pension scheme.

The only way I can envisage to try to avoid this is to negotiate with the employer to delay the redundancy until after discharge (normally 12 months from the bankruptcy date, but can be sooner if no payments being made to creditors). However, even this may not work - the OR has a power to delay discharge if made aware of a forthcoming payment.
JJ is totally and absolutely right.
Unfortunately for your friend :-(
Hi, I read your story and i think you will need an financial service to handle your situation, i found a website that can help your problem. They will handle about bankruptcy issues.

www.bankruptcyexpertsemerald.com.au

1 to 13 of 13rss feed

Do you know the answer?

Redundancy and Bankruptcy

Answer Question >>

Related Questions