The administration of failed law firm SSB Group will extend into next year, newly published documents reveal. In a progress report published at Companies House last week, administrators from insolvency practice FRP said they had obtained approval to extend the process until January 2026. If a further extension is needed, the joint administrators will be required to apply to court.

FRP said ‘significant time’ has been spent in the last six months on investigations and fielding queries to and from the SRA, funders, insurers and other relevant parties. Investigations are ongoing and will be reported to the secretary of state where appropriate.

The outlook for creditors owed money by the former Sheffield claims firm is no brighter than in previous updates. On the date of appointment, litigation and disbursement funder Katch was owed £63m: a distribution to the company is not anticipated based on the recoveries that have been made.

It is currently estimated that preferential creditors are owed £237,000 in total through employees’ arrears of pay, unpaid pension contributions and holding pay.

In the last six months, the redundancy payments service, a government service that helps former employees claim money owed to them, submitted a claim for £583,670. Again it is anticipated there will be insufficient funds to enable a distribution to these preferential creditors.

The outlook is similar for the unsecured creditors collectively owed almost £142m (including funders other than Katch who are owed £135m), who are not due to be paid anything. To date, 51 creditors have submitted claims in the administration totalling £28m.

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SSB’s work and assets raised an immediate £731,000 when they were sold following the administration in January 2024. This included £186,000 for goodwill and shares in SSB Compliance which was used to pay off debts to HSBC and an outstanding coronavirus business support loan.

Sale agreements with law firms Harcus Parker and Consumer Rights Solicitors came to £341,000.

As previously reported, there are insufficient assets in the estate to meet the costs of the administration, which now come to more than £1m.

Katch has provided funding to allow the joint administrators to draw fees of £740,000 plus VAT over the past year. The secured creditors have also approved that the administrators can draw down up to £250,000 from the estate.

The fallout from the SSB collapse has yet to full play out. The SRA has an ongoing investigation as part of a wider inquiry into bulk claims firms, but the regulator itself is also being investigated by the Legal Services Board over its response to the firm’s descent into insolvency.