Who qualifies for statutory redundancy pay
To qualify for statutory redundancy pay, you must:
- Be an employee (not just a worker or self-employed)
- Have at least two years of continuous service with your employer
- Have been dismissed by reason of redundancy
Workers and self-employed contractors do not qualify. Agency workers placed by an agency generally do not qualify either, unless they have employee status with the hirer.
Your employer cannot avoid the obligation by calling the dismissal something else. If the job has genuinely disappeared or the business is closing, it is redundancy regardless of the label used.
How statutory redundancy pay is calculated
Statutory redundancy pay is based on three factors: your age, your length of service, and your weekly pay. Your weekly pay is capped at a figure set by the government — verify the current weekly pay cap at GOV.UK, as it changes each April.
The multiplier for each complete year of service depends on how old you were during that year:
Age band multipliers
| Age during that year of service | Weeks' pay per year of service |
|---|---|
| Under 22 | 0.5 week's pay |
| 22 to 40 | 1 week's pay |
| 41 or over | 1.5 weeks' pay |
The calculation in practice
Service is capped at 20 years. So the maximum statutory redundancy pay is 20 years of service at the 1.5 multiplier, applied to the weekly pay cap. Verify that maximum at GOV.UK — the weekly pay cap changes each April.
GOV.UK has a redundancy pay calculator that does this calculation for you: https://www.gov.uk/calculate-your-redundancy-pay. Enter your age, length of service, and weekly pay and it gives you a figure. Use it rather than working through the multipliers manually.
Your employer can offer more than the statutory minimum, but not less. Many large employers have enhanced redundancy policies — check your contract or staff handbook before assuming the statutory minimum is all you will receive.
Statutory redundancy pay is tax-free up to £30,000. Payments above that threshold are taxed. If your total termination package exceeds £30,000, get advice on how it is structured.
Notice pay and redundancy pay are two separate things — both matter
Your notice period and your redundancy pay are calculated and paid separately. You are entitled to both.
The statutory minimum notice period is one week per complete year of service, capped at 12 weeks. Your contract may give you a longer notice period — in which case your contractual entitlement applies.
Your employer can put you on garden leave during your notice period. You are still employed, still paid your normal salary, but not required to come in. This matters because while you are on garden leave you remain an employee — which can affect things like starting a new job or accessing benefits. Check your contract for any garden leave or post-employment restriction clauses before accepting redundancy terms.
Notice entitlements
Statutory minimum notice is one week per complete year of continuous service, capped at 12 weeks. So someone with eight years of service is entitled to eight weeks' notice. Someone with 15 years is entitled to the maximum of 12 weeks.
Your contract may provide a longer notice period. Contractual notice always takes precedence over the statutory minimum if it is more generous.
You must also give your employer notice if you decide to leave — typically the notice period stated in your contract. During a redundancy process, most employees do not resign; they wait to be made redundant to receive their statutory redundancy payment.
Consultation requirements
Your employer must consult you before making you redundant. The consultation requirement is more demanding when larger numbers of redundancies are involved.
For fewer than 20 redundancies, there is no statutory minimum consultation period. Your employer must still consult with you individually, explain the situation, consider alternatives to redundancy, and give you the chance to respond. Failing to do so may make the redundancy procedurally unfair.
For 20 to 99 redundancies at one site within 90 days, the employer must collectively consult for at least 30 days before the first dismissal takes effect. This consultation must be with employee representatives or a recognised trade union.
For 100 or more redundancies within 90 days, the minimum collective consultation period is 45 days.
Failure to comply with collective consultation requirements is a separate legal issue from unfair dismissal. An employment tribunal can award a protective award of up to 90 days' pay per affected employee if an employer fails to carry out collective consultation properly. This is worth knowing if you are in a large-scale redundancy situation.
Signs that a redundancy may not be genuine
A redundancy is only lawful if the job genuinely no longer exists. Several things suggest a redundancy may actually be a disguised unfair dismissal:
The role is advertised again shortly after your departure. Your employer recruited into it within weeks of making you redundant. The selection criteria were vague or applied inconsistently across a team doing the same work. You were the only person selected in a team of people with equivalent roles and no clear objective basis was given.
If any of these apply, the route is an unfair dismissal claim — not a redundancy dispute. See /employment-rights/unfair-dismissal for the process.
ACAS early conciliation and employment tribunal
If you believe your redundancy was not genuine, or that the process was unfair, you must go through ACAS, the employment advisory service, before you can bring an employment tribunal claim.
ACAS early conciliation is free. A trained conciliator contacts both parties and tries to reach a settlement without a tribunal. Many disputes are resolved at this stage. You do not need a solicitor for ACAS early conciliation, and nothing said in conciliation is admissible in a tribunal hearing.
Start ACAS early conciliation at acas.org.uk. There is a strict time limit: you must contact ACAS within three months less one day of the date your employment ended.
If conciliation does not resolve the issue, you can submit a claim to an employment tribunal. Tribunal claims currently take months to over a year to reach a hearing in many regions. There are no tribunal fees for bringing an unfair dismissal or redundancy claim. The basic award in an unfair dismissal claim uses the same formula as statutory redundancy pay. Verify the current compensatory award cap at GOV.UK — it changes annually.
When to get a solicitor
Many redundancy situations can be navigated without a solicitor, particularly if the payment is straightforward and you are not disputing the process. But some situations benefit from legal advice:
You believe the selection was discriminatory (based on age, sex, disability, race, or another protected characteristic). The redundancy looks like a sham designed to remove a specific person. Your employer is under-settling your claim by misapplying the calculation. You have a settlement agreement on the table and your employer is asking you to sign away your rights.
On settlement agreements: you are legally required to take independent legal advice before signing one. Your employer will typically pay a contribution toward that legal advice. Do not sign a settlement agreement without taking it.
Get plain-English employment rights guides without the legal jargon.
Common questions about redundancy
How much redundancy pay will I get?▾
Statutory redundancy pay depends on your age, length of service, and weekly pay, up to a government-set weekly pay cap. The multiplier is 0.5 weeks' pay per year of service if you were under 22 during that year, 1 week's pay if you were 22 to 40, and 1.5 weeks' pay if you were 41 or over. Service is capped at 20 years. Use the GOV.UK redundancy pay calculator to get an accurate figure — the weekly pay cap changes each April.
Do I qualify for redundancy pay?▾
You qualify if you are an employee (not a worker or self-employed contractor), have at least two years of continuous service with your employer, and have been dismissed by reason of redundancy. If you resigned, you generally do not qualify unless you were on a fixed-term contract and the non-renewal constitutes redundancy.
What is the difference between redundancy and being sacked?▾
Redundancy means the job itself no longer exists — the work has stopped, the function has been reorganised away, or the business is closing. Being dismissed (sacked) is a personal decision about you as an individual, based on performance, conduct, or another reason relating to you. The legal routes are different. Statutory redundancy pay is only available for genuine redundancy. If a dismissal is dressed up as redundancy but the job continues in some form, that is potentially unfair dismissal.
What if I think my redundancy is unfair?▾
If you believe the redundancy was not genuine, or that you were selected unfairly, you can bring an unfair dismissal claim. You must first go through ACAS early conciliation — start at acas.org.uk. There is a time limit of three months less one day from the date your employment ended, so do not delay. The ACAS helpline is 0300 123 1100.
Do I get paid during my notice period?▾
Yes. You are entitled to be paid your normal pay during your notice period, whether you are required to work it or placed on garden leave. If your employer terminates you without notice, they owe you payment in lieu of notice (PILON). The statutory minimum is one week per complete year of service, up to 12 weeks. Your contract may give you more.
What is garden leave?▾
Garden leave is when your employer puts you on your full notice period but does not require you to come in or do any work. You remain an employee throughout and continue to receive your full pay and benefits. It is used when an employer wants to keep you away from clients, colleagues, or commercially sensitive information during your notice period. Your contract needs to allow for garden leave — it is not automatic.
Can I claim unfair dismissal if I was made redundant?▾
Yes, if the redundancy was not genuine. Redundancy is one of the five potentially fair reasons for dismissal — but only if the job genuinely no longer exists and the selection process was fair. If the role appears shortly afterwards, if the selection criteria were applied inconsistently, or if the process was clearly aimed at removing a specific individual, that is grounds for an unfair dismissal claim. Contact ACAS first.
What is the redundancy consultation process?▾
For fewer than 20 redundancies, there is no statutory minimum period, but your employer must still consult you individually — explain the situation, consider alternatives, and give you the chance to respond. For 20 to 99 redundancies at one site within 90 days, collective consultation with employee representatives must last at least 30 days. For 100 or more redundancies, the minimum is 45 days. Failing to consult properly is grounds for a protective award claim, separate from unfair dismissal.
Explore related pages
- →Employment rights hubYour broader rights as an employee in the UK
- →Unfair dismissalWhat makes a dismissal unfair, and how to challenge it
- →Universal CreditIf you have lost your job, Universal Credit is the main benefit to check first
- →Benefits and financial supportFull overview of what you can claim after redundancy