Fair Entitlements Guarantee – Active Creditor and Recovery Initiatives

The Fair Entitlements Guarantee (FEG) provides financial assistance for unpaid employment entitlements to eligible employees upon the liquidation or bankruptcy of their employer. We have written about the FEG scheme in the past and you can read more here.

The FEG Recovery Program is administered by the Attorney-General’s Department and works to fund actions that will assist Liquidators and Bankruptcy Trustees with recovering funds for the benefit of creditors, among which FEG is a key priority stakeholder.

Statistics maintained by FEG suggest that between 1 July 2015 and 30 June 2021, some $212M has been recovered from the program’s advances and costs recoveries.

The FEG Recovery Program has two divisions – FEG Recovery Funding and FEG Active Creditor.

The Recovery Program is intended to fund Liquidators and Trustees with recovery efforts and legal proceedings where the claims with a reasonable prospect of success have value for creditors, including FEG for advances it makes in respect of employee entitlements.

In the corporate setting, the Recovery Program may fund matters such as investigations and public examinations, insolvent trading claims against directors and other voidable transaction recoveries.  

Additionally, the Active Creditor unit allows FEG to be an informed and engaged creditor once an advance is made to the insolvent estate. The unit actively communicates with Liquidators and Trustees by attending creditor meetings, voting on resolutions, following up dividend processes and raising issues relevant to the interests of creditors as a whole and in relation to its own advances made to satisfy employee entitlements.

If you have any queries about the FEG program, please feel free to get in touch with me.