Redundancy solicitors

Being told your job is at risk is hard, and employers often move quickly once they have decided. We tell you whether the redundancy is genuine, whether you were chosen fairly and whether the money is right, and we act for you if it is not. We advise employees across England and Wales by phone or video, or in person at our Manchester office.

Key points

• A redundancy must be genuine, and your employer must consult you and choose fairly. If it does not, you may have a claim for unfair dismissal.
• Statutory redundancy pay needs two years' service. For redundancies on or after 6 April 2026 the most it can be is £22,530.
• You are also owed notice pay and pay for untaken holiday, whatever your length of service.
• Most tribunal claims must be started within six months less one day, after contacting Acas.
• If you are offered a settlement agreement, a solicitor has to advise you before it binds you, and your employer usually pays.

What counts as redundancy?

Section 139 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 gives three situations. Your employer is closing the business. Your employer is closing the place where you work. Or the business needs fewer employees to do work of a particular kind. Your job does not have to disappear altogether: a reorganisation that spreads the same work over fewer people can be a redundancy.

If none of those applies, the dismissal is for some other reason, and calling it redundancy does not make it fair. Employers sometimes use redundancy to remove someone they have fallen out with, someone who has raised a complaint, or someone on maternity leave. Where the role is filled again soon after you leave, that is evidence the redundancy was not genuine.

Is my redundancy fair?

Even where the redundancy is genuine, the dismissal is unfair unless your employer acts reasonably. A tribunal looks at four things.

• Warning and consultation. You should be told your job is at risk and given a real chance to respond before the decision is made.
• The pool. Your employer must decide which group of employees the redundancies will come from, and the choice must be reasonable.
• The selection criteria. These should be things that can be measured and checked, such as skills, qualifications and disciplinary record, applied fairly to everyone in the pool.
• Alternative work. Your employer must look for another suitable job for you in the business and offer it if there is one.

To claim ordinary unfair dismissal you need two years' service for dismissals up to 31 December 2026, and six months for dismissals from 1 January 2027. No qualifying period applies where you were selected for an automatically unfair reason, such as pregnancy, whistleblowing or trade union membership, or where the selection was discrimination.

How much redundancy pay will I get?

Statutory redundancy pay is worked out from your age, your complete years of service and your weekly pay, under section 162 of the Employment Rights Act 1996. You need at least two years' service.

• Half a week's pay for each full year you worked while under 22.
• One week's pay for each full year you worked while aged 22 to 40.
• One and a half weeks' pay for each full year you worked while aged 41 or over.

Only the last 20 years count. A week's pay is capped at £751 for redundancies on or after 6 April 2026, so the highest possible statutory payment is £22,530. The cap goes up each April. Our calculator works out your figure.

Your contract or a staff policy may give you more than the statutory amount. Where your employer has paid enhanced redundancy to others in the past, you may be entitled to the same. Statutory redundancy pay is free of income tax and counts towards the £30,000 of a termination payment that is usually tax-free.

Notice, holiday and other pay

Redundancy pay is separate from the rest of what you are owed.

• Notice. The statutory minimum is one week once you have worked for a month, then one week for each complete year of service up to twelve weeks. Your contract may give you longer. If your employer does not want you to work your notice, it must pay you in lieu or put you on garden leave.
• Holiday. You are paid for holiday you have built up and not taken.
• Bonus, commission and benefits that fall due before your leaving date, depending on your contract.

If you are not given the notice your contract requires, that is wrongful dismissal.

Consultation

Every redundancy needs individual consultation. There is no fixed length, but a single meeting at which you are told the decision is not consultation.

Where an employer proposes to make 20 or more employees redundant at one establishment within 90 days, it must also consult collectively with a recognised trade union or elected employee representatives, under section 188 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992. Consultation must begin at least 30 days before the first dismissal, or 45 days where 100 or more redundancies are proposed. If the employer fails to do this, a tribunal can make a protective award of up to 180 days' pay for each affected employee. That maximum doubled from 90 days on 6 April 2026.

Alternative jobs and trial periods

If your employer offers you a different job, you have a statutory trial period of four weeks in it. If the job turns out not to be suitable and you leave during the trial, you keep your right to redundancy pay. If you unreasonably refuse a suitable alternative, you can lose it. What is suitable depends on pay, status, hours, location and your own circumstances.

Once you are under notice of redundancy and have two years' service, you are entitled to reasonable paid time off to look for work or arrange training.

Redundancy during pregnancy or maternity leave

If your job is redundant while you are pregnant, on maternity, adoption or shared parental leave, or have recently returned, you have priority over other employees for any suitable alternative vacancy. Since 6 April 2024 that protection starts when you tell your employer you are pregnant and generally lasts until 18 months after the birth. Selecting you for redundancy because of pregnancy or maternity leave is automatically unfair and is discrimination. See pregnancy and maternity discrimination.

Voluntary redundancy and settlement agreements

Many employers offer an enhanced payment in return for your signature on a settlement agreement. Before you sign, check that the figure includes your statutory redundancy pay, your full notice and your holiday pay as well as the extra, and that the extra is fair for the claims you are giving up. The agreement only binds you once an independent adviser has advised you on it. See settlement agreements.

Time limits

A claim for unfair dismissal must be started within six months less one day of the date your employment ended, where that date is on or after 1 October 2026. You must contact Acas for early conciliation first, which pauses the clock. A claim for an unpaid statutory redundancy payment must be made within six months of the date your employment ended. The limits are strict, so take advice while you are still in consultation if you can.

How we work

1. First consultation (£100 for half an hour, £180 for an hour). We read the at-risk letter, the selection scores and your contract, and tell you where you stand.
2. During consultation. We help you challenge the pool, the scoring or the lack of alternatives, in writing, while the decision can still be changed.
3. Negotiation. Where your employer wants a clean exit, we negotiate the payment and the terms.
4. Appeal and claim. If you are dismissed unfairly, we deal with the appeal, Acas conciliation and the employment tribunal claim.

What it costs

We assess your case first and agree how you will pay, and what it will cost, before any work starts. Typical costs for an unfair dismissal claim are on our fees page. Where you are offered a settlement agreement, your employer usually contributes to the cost of the advice.

Questions people ask

Ask a question

Not sure where you stand? Ask a solicitor and we will reply by phone or email, or send an enquiry for a free initial assessment.