Staff and freelances owed money by The Pool have been told how much they can expect to receive from a crowdfund set up shortly after the digital publisher’s collapse.
Fund creator Julia Kingsford has said some of The Pool’s former writers will receive around a quarter of what they are owed by the women’s lifestyle website from the crowdfund.
The fund, which was set up after The Pool collapsed last month and is not affiliated with the publisher, has so far raised more than £30,000.
An update to its Go Fund Me page posted on 1 March said everyone who had signed up for money from the fund had been told how much they would receive from it.
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Kingsford wrote that staff were “better protected than freelancers” under rules that allow employees to apply to the Government for payments they are due – including unpaid wages, holiday pay and redundancy packets – so would have their payout from the fund reduced by about £2,000.
She added that some who had signed up to receive money from the fund had asked that others be prioritised, so had their payouts reduced by 15 per cent.
They will take home 21 per cent of what they’re owed while prioritised staff and freelances will receive 28 per cent, Kingsford claimed.
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She added: “Finally in a handful of cases where there was specific and urgent need we took that into account and increased their amount accordingly.”
The Pool has still yet to file notice of an administrator being appointed to oversee the company’s closure, according to Companies House.
Editor Cate Sevilla said yesterday that “multiple people” had contacted her about money they are owed by the publisher.
“Basically nothing has happened,” she tweeted. “As far as I know we have not been put into administration, nor have we been officially wound up by the Government. If we have, nobody has notified me.”
Press Gazette has asked The Pool when it would appoint an administrator, when creditors could expect to receive money and what steps had been taken to update staff on the company’s status, but yet to receive a reply.
Marisa Bate, a freelance journalist who wrote for The Pool, claimed that the website owes her money for “£9,000 worth of work” in a blog post.
She wrote: “Considering I am someone who sells words for a living (just about), I still haven’t found ones that articulately surmise the feeling that there should be an extra £9,000 in my bank account and what my life would be like currently if there was.
“I can only describe the consequences: I have been thrown to the bottom of my overdraft, I have had to give up my co-working space. I have exhausted savings. I have borrowed money. I have taken on jobs I don’t want to in time frames I can’t manage.”
Hundreds of freelance journalists demanded an end to payment on publication, respect for late payment fees and an update to publisher payment systems in an open letter published early last month.
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