Being told your role is redundant isn’t the same as being told you have no rights. Statutory redundancy pay, a minimum notice period, consultation, and — in some cases — a claim for unfair dismissal are all built into UK employment law, and knowing which apply to your situation can make a real financial difference.
Who qualifies for statutory redundancy pay
GOV.UK is clear on the headline rule: you’re normally entitled to statutory redundancy pay if you’re an employee (not certain other types of worker) and you’ve worked for your current employer continuously for two years or more. Falling just short of two years’ continuous service generally means no entitlement to the statutory payment at all, regardless of how genuine the redundancy is — which is why the exact start date of continuous employment can matter enormously if a redundancy happens close to that anniversary.
How the statutory payment is actually calculated
The amount isn’t a flat figure — it’s based on age, length of service and weekly pay, using bands set out in law. For each full year worked, you get: half a week’s pay for each full year under age 22; one week’s pay for each full year aged 22 to 40; and one and a half week’s pay for each full year aged 41 or over. Length of service is capped at 20 years. Weekly pay is based on your average earnings over the 12 weeks before you received your redundancy notice, but that weekly figure is itself capped — for redundancies from 6 April 2026, the weekly pay used in the calculation is capped at £751, making the maximum possible statutory redundancy payment £22,530. Many employers pay more than the statutory minimum under a contractual or enhanced redundancy scheme, but the statutory figure is the legal floor, not a target.
Individual consultation: a right for everyone at risk
Regardless of how many people are affected, GOV.UK confirms that anyone being made redundant is entitled to a consultation with their employer. For smaller-scale redundancies, there’s no fixed statutory procedure or minimum timeframe the way there is for collective consultation — but a genuine, meaningful consultation is still expected, covering things like why the role is at risk, whether there are suitable alternative roles, and whether the selection process (where multiple roles are being reduced to fewer) has been applied fairly. An employer who simply announces a decision, without any real opportunity for the employee to respond or be considered for alternatives, risks the redundancy being found unfair later.
Collective consultation for larger redundancies
Different, stricter rules apply once an employer proposes making 20 or more employees redundant at one establishment within a 90-day period. This triggers collective consultation duties under section 188 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992: the employer must consult with a recognised trade union or elected employee representatives, covering ways to avoid the redundancies, the reasons behind them, and ways to reduce the number of dismissals and mitigate their effects. This consultation must start at least 30 days before the first dismissal takes effect where 20 to 99 redundancies are proposed, rising to at least 45 days where 100 or more are proposed. Employers must also notify the government’s Redundancy Payments Service within the same timescales, before any individual notice of dismissal is issued.
Notice periods
Separately from redundancy pay, employees are entitled to statutory minimum notice of dismissal once they’ve worked for at least one month: one week’s notice for each full year of service up to 12 years (so a maximum of 12 weeks under the statutory minimum), or the notice period set out in the employment contract if that’s longer. Pay in lieu of notice, where the employer ends employment immediately but pays the equivalent salary for the notice period, is common practice but should be clearly agreed rather than assumed.
When a redundancy can become an unfair dismissal claim
- The redundancy needs to be genuine — a real reduction in the need for employees to carry out a particular kind of work, not a pretext for removing someone for another reason such as raising a grievance or taking maternity leave.
- Selection for redundancy, where several roles are being reduced to fewer, needs to be based on fair, objective criteria applied consistently — selecting someone based on protected characteristics, or on an unfair or inconsistently applied scoring process, can found an unfair dismissal or discrimination claim.
- An employer generally needs to have considered suitable alternative employment within the business before dismissing someone as redundant, rather than jumping straight to dismissal.
- To bring an unfair dismissal claim specifically (as opposed to a redundancy pay dispute), an employee generally needs two years’ continuous service, mirroring the redundancy pay threshold, and must go through ACAS early conciliation before lodging a tribunal claim.
FAQs
What if my employer offers me a different role instead of redundancy?
If it’s a genuinely suitable alternative role, unreasonably refusing it can affect your entitlement to redundancy pay. You’re generally entitled to a four-week trial period in the new role to decide whether it’s suitable, without automatically losing your redundancy rights during that trial.
Does redundancy pay count as taxable income?
Statutory redundancy pay, and most enhanced redundancy payments up to £30,000, are not usually subject to income tax or National Insurance, though this depends on how the payment is structured and any other sums paid alongside it — it’s worth checking the specific breakdown of what you’ve been offered.
Can I still get redundancy pay if the company goes insolvent?
Yes — if your employer can’t pay, you can usually claim statutory redundancy pay and other outstanding payments directly from the government’s Redundancy Payments Service, which then becomes a creditor of the insolvent employer in your place.