If you are an employer who needs to make staff redundant in order to survive the coronavirus crisis, a Government scheme is in place to help fund the cost of statutory redundancy payments.

Employers who can’t their employees redundancy pay can apply to the Redundancy Payments Service (RPS) (part of a government agency called the Insolvency Service) for financial assistance.

If the assistance is approved, the RPS will make statutory redundancy payments directly to the relevant employees on the employer’s behalf.

The assistance is in the form of an interest free loan.

To be eligible, the employer must provide evidence that they can’t afford to pay their employees statutory redundancy pay and that the employee does have a valid claim. The application requires disclosure of financial information, including business forecasts which demonstrate a realistic repayment plan and evidence that reasonable measures have been taken to raise the funds needed.

Whilst staff redundancies are never ideal, for employers who find themselves in this situation, the government scheme may prove to be a useful tool as part of a plan to restructure and help build a robust business going forward.