ROUTE
Employer insolvent: pay for work already done
The agency covers the last three months of pay, but the application runs on a two-month preclusive deadline. What triggers the claim and what remains after.
β Checked: 02/08/2026
When an employer stops paying and it later becomes clear the business is insolvent, employees have a mechanism of their own: a payment covering the last three months of work, made by the employment agency. The entitlement arises not from unpaid wages as such but from one of three statutory events β the opening of insolvency proceedings, rejection of the application for want of assets, or the complete cessation of business operations.
COSTS AND DEADLINES
Deadlines you cannot miss
- The application must be made within a preclusive period of two months after the insolvency eventTwo months: a deadline that forgives almost nothinghard deadline
- A claim to the labour court must be filed within three weeks of receiving written noticeThe employment contract in insolvency does not end by itselfhard deadline
Amounts follow official fees as of each stepβs verification date. Your city may charge a different rate β check the step itself.
βΊ More about this route
The greatest danger here is not refusal but the deadline. The application runs within a preclusive period of two months after that event: missing it extinguishes the claim rather than postponing it. Relief exists only where you are not responsible for the delay, and again within two months. The deadline is usually lost while waiting for the administrator certificate β which has nothing to do with filing.
This five-step route covers the whole path: which event triggers the entitlement and which months are covered, why the two-month deadline outweighs any document, how the amount is calculated and what happens to the wage claim after filing, what becomes of the employment contract meanwhile, and what remains after payment β uncovered months, paperwork and the next step.
REQUIRED DOCUMENTS
All possible documents for this route
- Payslips for three months
- Employment contract
- Correspondence about unpaid wages
- Application
- Evidence of the date of the insolvency event
- Payslips
- Administrator certificate
- Written notice of termination
- Correspondence with the administrator
- Grant decision
- Earnings certificate
- Employment papers
WHERE PEOPLE MOST OFTEN LOSE MONEY AND TIME
- Waiting for the administrator certificate and letting the two months lapse. File in time first, documents later.
- Treating unpaid wages as the insolvency event. Counting starts only from one of the three events named in the law.
- Expecting the benefit to cover the whole debt. It covers the three months before the event; the rest stays a claim in the proceedings.
- Simply stopping work on hearing about the insolvency. The contract does not end by itself, and three weeks remain to challenge a dismissal.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS ROUTE
Where do I start when wages have gone unpaid for months?βΎ
With establishing whether one of the three statutory events has occurred and exactly when. Before that it is an ordinary claim; afterwards the short two-month clock is running.
How long until the money arrives?βΎ
The application goes in at once; the calculation depends on how quickly earnings data appears. In practice that means weeks, and your own payslips are the best way to speed it up.
Does this apply to foreign employees?βΎ
The law turns on employment within Germany rather than on citizenship. What matters is that the work was done here and that unpaid wage claims exist for the period before the event.
How does this relate to unemployment benefit?βΎ
They are different benefits with different bases: one covers work already done, the other begins after the job is lost. One does not exclude the other.