Jobs and rights at work
BrewDog staff get nothing. The state pays 8 weeks, capped at £751.
Administrators say there is no money for £489,000 of unpaid BrewDog wages, so staff must claim from the state instead — capped at £751 a week.
£751 weekly cap on what the state pays
If your employer collapses owing you wages, the money does not come out of the wreckage. It comes from the government, it is capped, and nobody sends it to you unless you ask.
Administrators AlixPartners reported this week that there are insufficient funds to pay around £489,000 of wage arrears and accrued holiday pay owed to BrewDog bar staff. Thirty-six bars closed, affecting almost 500 workers. BrewDog PLC also owes around £190 million to unsecured creditors, who are expected to get less than a penny in the pound.
Nothing of that £489,000 comes out of the administration: staff have to claim from the Insolvency Service instead, which pays a maximum of eight weeks of arrears with every week capped at £751.
That is the ordinary outcome, not an unusual one. Which is why the floor underneath it matters.
What the state pays instead
| What you can claim | Maximum | Tax and National Insurance |
|---|---|---|
| Arrears of pay | 8 weeks | 20% tax, 8% NI |
| Holiday pay | 6 weeks | 20% tax, 8% NI |
| Notice pay | 1 week per full year worked, up to 12 weeks | 20% tax, 8% NI |
| Statutory redundancy pay | up to £22,530 | none of either |
Every weekly amount is capped at £751 — the statutory week’s pay for dismissals on or after 6 April 2026. If you were earning £900 a week, eight weeks of arrears comes to £6,008, not £7,200.
The catch: it arrives taxed at 20%
Wages, holiday pay and notice pay from the Insolvency Service come with basic-rate tax taken off, whatever your tax code says. National Insurance is deducted at 8% on the part above the primary threshold, which is £242 a week in 2026/27.
That matters most to the people it hurts most. A part-time worker who earned less than the personal allowance that year still has 20% taken off, on money they may owe no tax on at all, and has to reclaim it from HMRC afterwards. Nobody tells you at the time.
Statutory redundancy pay is the exception. No tax, no National Insurance.
Notice pay has a second catch. What the Insolvency Service pays is compensation for losing your notice, so it is reduced by any income-related benefits you were entitled to claim in that period, and by any wages you earned in a new job.
You have to claim, and the clock runs
Nothing is automatic. The administrator gives you a case reference — a “CN” number — and you apply online to the Redundancy Payments Service yourself.
For statutory redundancy pay the limit is six months minus one day from the date the job ended. GOV.UK sets no deadline for the arrears, holiday and notice claims, but there is nothing to gain by waiting.
Statutory redundancy pay also needs two years’ service. Arrears, holiday and notice do not.
Where HMRC stands
HMRC is owed £2.4 million in unpaid VAT, and it is behind the staff in the queue, not beside them. Since 1 December 2020 VAT has been a secondary preferential debt, paid only after employees’ arrears of wages and holiday pay. Here there is not enough to pay the first rank, so the second does not arise.
If you work in the NHS or for a council
Your employer is not going into administration. But the same statutory floor sits underneath your contract, and your own scheme is measured against it — NHS redundancy pay sets out what Agenda for Change pays, and leaving a council job covers what is owed on the way out.
Where these figures come from
- ‘Insufficient funds’ to pay employee wage debts at collapsed BrewDog company — KentOnline
- Explaining your redundancy payments — GOV.UK
- Redundancy: your rights — redundancy pay — GOV.UK
- Redundancy pay — Your rights during redundancy — Acas
Every figure traces to a dated document — the line this section is named after. If one here is wrong, tell us and it gets fixed publicly. Work out your own figures.