Insolvency Payments Scheme

The Insolvency Payments Scheme protects the former employees, if their employer becomes legally insolvent.

The Scheme covers some pay and pension entitlements owed to employees by their insolvent employer. The employer’s representative, such as a liquidator or receiver, will apply to the Scheme on the employees’ behalf.

The following types of unpaid debts are covered under the Scheme:

• Arrears of wages
• Outstanding holiday pay
• Unpaid statutory minimum notice
• Contractual sick pay
• Most unpaid statutory awards made by the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) or Labour Court (such as Unfair Dismissal)
• Certain arrears of pension contributions

Some limitations and conditions apply

There is a limit of 8 weeks for:

• arrears of wages
• holiday pay
• contractual sick pay
• minimum notice.

Gross weekly wage is capped at €600 per week.

The outstanding debt must have become due in the 18 months prior to the date of insolvency or employment termination.

Pension contributions

Certain employee and employer contributions to pension schemes are covered under the Insolvency Payments Scheme.

Pensions schemes covered include:

Occupational pension schemes, PRSAs and My Future Fund (auto-enrolment).

Employee contributions are only covered if they were deducted from the employee’s pay but not paid into the pension scheme.

Pension contributions that were liable to be paid in the 12 months up to the date of the employer’s insolvency are covered.

• the business is in liquidation and a liquidator has been formally appointed
• the business is in receivership and a Receiver has been formally appointed
• the employer is legally bankrupt, and an Official Assignee has been formally appointed
• the employer has died and the estate is being administered under the relevant legislation
• the employer is insolvent under the legislation of another EU Member State or the UK

On 8 June 2026, the Insolvency Payments Scheme rules changed.

Employees may now be eligible to apply to seek payment under the Insolvency Payments Scheme if they are owed money by their former employer and they believe their employer ceased trading without going into liquidation / receivership / bankruptcy.

Learn about the Deemed Insolvent Process.

The scheme covers employees who are insured for all benefits under social welfare legislation. Generally this means an employee who pays class “A” PRSI.

Employees do not need to have any minimum length of service working with their employer to be covered.

In most cases, the employee’s gross weekly wage is used to calculate the amount that can be paid under the scheme. Gross weekly wage is capped at €600 per week.

The maximum payment for arrears of wages, holiday pay, contractual sick pay, or minimum notice is €4,800 (€600 * 8 weeks).

The €600 per week cap also applies to unpaid statutory awards made by the WRC or Labour Court.

Please contact the liquidator, receiver or employer representative in order to make an application.

Applications for debts payable under the Insolvency Payments Scheme must be made by the employer representative, liquidator or receiver and will be submitted by them using the Redundancy and Insolvency Payments Schemes service on Welfare Partners.

To access this service, the employer representative, liquidator or receiver will require a ROS Sub-Cert which is issued by Revenue. More information on how to apply for a DSP Sub-Cert can be found here.

Further information for employer representatives on how to access and use this service on Welfare Partners can be found here.

There are special rules an employee will need to follow if they want to use the Deemed Insolvent Process to access the Insolvency Payments Scheme. Learn about the Deemed Insolvent Process.

Intreo (the Public Employment Service) is a single point of contact for all employment and income supports and services.

Click here for an overview and further information about redundancy and insolvency.