{"id":530,"date":"2021-07-06T23:20:32","date_gmt":"2021-07-06T22:20:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hr-management-dimensions.co.uk\/HRMDmn\/key-hr-facts\/?p=530"},"modified":"2026-04-06T18:03:55","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T17:03:55","slug":"redundancy-consultation-pay-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hr-management-dimensions.co.uk\/HRMDmn\/key-hr-facts\/redundancy-consultation-pay-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Redundancy: Consultation & Pay ~"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

[Updated 03\/04\/2026]<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notes below include:
– extended right to be given alternative employment;
– penalty for failure to consult a recognised trade union or inadequate consultation;
– paid time off work to seek alternative employment or to retrain;
– exit payments in the Public Sector – potential changes in 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Redundancy<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Consultation Requirements<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The requirements differ according to the number of individuals affected:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1 \u2013 19 Employees<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

There is no stipulated length of consultation before the first dismissal may take place. However, there is an expectation that reasonable and meaningful consultation will occur with the individuals affected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

20 \u2013 99 Employees<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Mandatory consultation period before the first dismissal is 30 days if 20 to 99 employees are affected;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Employer must consult with the recognised trade union. If no union is recognised the requirement is to consult with existing employee representatives or body; if such a body is not in existernce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Specific information has to be provided during the consultation process to the union or employee representative body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

100 or more Employees<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Mandatory consultation period before the first dismissal is 45 days if 100 or more employees are affected;
Other requirements apply as for 20 \u2013 99 employees<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If there is no recognised trade union nor a body of employee representatives, the employer must arrange an election of employee representatives for this purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Specific information has to be provided during the consultation process to the union or employee representative body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Failure to Consult Trade Union or Inadequate Consultation re Redundancies ~\/<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

\u2013\u00a0 A Protective Award may be awarded by a Tribunal of up to a maximum of 90 days gross pay per employee affected; there is no limit on the rate of pay;
\u2013\u00a0 Only the Trade Union or elected employee representatives can initiate a claim.
\u2013\u00a0 Employees must have been made redundant before the claim is initiated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Failure to Consult Individuals re Redundancies (breach of Code of Practice)<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

An extra award of compensation may be made by a Tribunal if either the employer or the employee has unreasonably failed to comply with the relevant Code. The Judge\/Panel may increase any
award against the employer by up to 25% but can also a reduce an award by no more than 25% if the employee has unreasonably failed to comply with the relevant Code of Practice. A relevant Code of Practice is one which relates exclusively or primarily to a procedure for the resolution of disputes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Redundancy Pay<\/span><\/strong> ** ~\/<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Qualifying Condition for Redundancy Pay<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

An individual must have 2 or more years continuous service with the employer or an associated employer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Redundancy Pay<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Redundancy pay depends on three factors:

– The individual\u2019s age when made redundant;
– His\/her length of continuous service but the maximum number of years to be taken into account is 20;
– The amount of the individual\u2019s weekly pay;
– The cap on a week’s pay i.e a statutory limit for calculations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The individual\u2019s age <\/strong><\/em>at the date of dismissal affects the amount of redundancy pay as below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013  Years of service aged 41 and upwards count for one and a half week\u2019s pay.
\u2013  Years of service between ages of 22 and 40 inclusive count for one week\u2019s pay.
\u2013  Years of service aged 21 or under count for half a week\u2019s pay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only complete years of service are used for the calculation and a limit of 20 years of service is used when calculating the amount of redundancy pay. Note for clarity 20 years of service from the age of 41 or higher would attract 30 weeks of redundancy pay i.e. 20 years x 1.5 week’s pay. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If an individual has been awarded redundancy pay previously, that will reduce the continous service that can be counted towards a later redundancy. For example, if an individual was given a redundancy payment 10 years ago, the length of continuous service will be broken and the reckonable continuous service years will start from the later employment date and be subject to an overall maximum of 20 years in the individual’s life time. Hence the maximum years of continous service that can be counted for an individual will be 10 in this example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The individual\u2019s length of continuous service<\/em><\/strong> affects the amount payable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Examples;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

a) Age 55 with 10 years service \u2013 each year attracts one and a half weeks of pay = 15 week’s pay;
b) Age 66 with 25 years service \u2013 each year attracts one and a half weeks of pay but only 20 years are counted i.e. 20 x 1.5 weeks = 30 week’s pay;
c) Age 28 with 8 years service \u2013 each year of service under 22 attracts half a weeks pay and each year aged 22 or over attracts one week i.e. 7 week’s pay in total.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remember a week’s pay is capped at \u00a3751 (\u00a3719 for 2025\/26) ~<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Calculating Redundancy Pay<\/strong> ** ~\/<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The rate of a week\u2019s pay at the date of dismissal is used but a cap applies of \u00a3751 (\u00a3719) per week.<\/em><\/strong>
A maximum 20 complete years of service can be counted backwards from the date of dismissal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The maximum statutory redundancy payment is \u00a322,530 (\u00a321,570). <\/strong><\/em>Many payments are smaller as to receive the maximum amount you will need to\u00a0have 20 years continuous service from age 41 or over and your earnings would need to be equal to or more than the cap per week.\u00a0 Hence the maximum payment of 20 weeks x 1.5 weeks x \u00a3751 = \u00a322,530.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yous may also be due other payments at the date of dismissal e.g. notice pay, untaken holidays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gross pay is used for calculating an individual’s entitlement. That would also include the value of an employer’s contribution to a pension scheme which could result in a higher sum if it is within the weekly cap on gross pay. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Normally, the first \u00a330,000 of statutory redundancy pay is not taxable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Financial Difficulties of an Employer <\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Employees may be able to recover some of their redundancy pay award if the employer is unable to pay. Help may be available from the Government’s Redundancy Payments Service. Read more about this via this link<\/a> to the Gov.UK relevant pages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alternative Employment – Changes from 6th April 2024<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Employers are advised to try to find suitable alternative employment for displaced staff. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A higher legal duty is placed upon employers <\/strong><\/em>to offer suitable alternative employment to parents who are taking a period of maternity leave or adoption leave or shared parental leave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those employees have priority over others who are at risk of redundancy as noted further below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– pregnancy<\/strong>– An individual must have 2 or more years continuous service with the employer or an associated employer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From 6th April 2024, protection starts from the date on which the employer is informed of the pregnancy and for an additional period when they return to work from maternity leave. For example, for an employee taking 12 months\u2019 maternity leave, the protection will continue to apply for six months after the woman’s return to work i.e. 18 months in total:

– having a baby<\/strong>– protection applies for a period of 18 months after the baby’s birth, if the employer is informed of the date of birth of the child.

– on adoption leave<\/strong> – protection applies during the adoption leave and continues when the individual returns to work for a total period of 18 months from when the child is placed with his\/her adoptive parent(s).

– on shared parental leave<\/strong> – an employee will be protected for the duration of the shared parental leave and when they return to work \u2013 a total of 18 months, running from the date of the child\u2019s birth (or placement in the case of adoption). To avoid double counting, the protection period will not apply if the employee is also protected under the adoption or maternity provisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The period of protection applies differently in the following leave situations:
– maternity and adoption leave ending<\/em> <\/strong>on or after 6 April 2024
– to shared parental leave starting <\/strong><\/em>on or after 6 April 2024 but protection only applies, after shared parental leave, if a minimum threshold of 6 weeks\u2019 continuous leave exists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TIP \u2013 <\/strong>do not overlook staff who are already on maternity leave or on a leave type mentioned above. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Time Off to Look for a Job or to Retrain<\/span><\/strong> ~<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

If an individual has been informed officially that he\/she will be made redundant, the following rights arise:

– Reasonable time off to look for a job or to retrain;
– The legislation states that the total payment may be limited to 2\/5ths of a week\u2019s pay.
– An employer may give more pay and\/or time off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Excluded Individuals<\/strong> <\/strong>= <\/em>Police, Armed forces, profit share fishermen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exit Payments in the Public Sector <\/strong>~<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The cap of \u00a395,000 on an exit payment made to an employee in the public sector is no longer applicable. An employee whose payment was affected adversely by the cap can request payment of the shortfall amount. That applies to payments made between 4th November 2020 and 12th February 2021<\/strong><\/em> to which the cap was applied. Affected individuals who were employed by a devolved Welsh Authority are not within this exemption. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sums deemed to be part of the cap do not include: payments in lieu of holiday; Tribunal or Court awards; compensation payments for accident, injuries or illness. Some public employers are exempt such as Universities and FE Colleges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Treasury is likely to introduce measures to challenge excessive exit payments that fall outside parameters which may be established after a Government consultation on this subject – read more. <\/a> The Government had agreed that it would not make any changes before 2025 to the redundancy payments in place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Updated 03\/04\/2026] Redundancy Consultation Requirements The requirements differ according to the number of individuals affected: 1 \u2013 19 Employees There is no stipulated length of consultation before the first dismissal may take place. However, there is an expectation that reasonable and meaningful consultation will occur with the individuals affected. 20 \u2013 99 Employees Mandatory consultation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":40,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[42,44,41,43],"class_list":["post-530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-redundancy-consultation-pay","tag-consultation-on-redundancies","tag-public-sector-exit-payments","tag-redundancy-pay","tag-time-off-to-look-for-a-job"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hr-management-dimensions.co.uk\/HRMDmn\/key-hr-facts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hr-management-dimensions.co.uk\/HRMDmn\/key-hr-facts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hr-management-dimensions.co.uk\/HRMDmn\/key-hr-facts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hr-management-dimensions.co.uk\/HRMDmn\/key-hr-facts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hr-management-dimensions.co.uk\/HRMDmn\/key-hr-facts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=530"}],"version-history":[{"count":41,"href":"https:\/\/hr-management-dimensions.co.uk\/HRMDmn\/key-hr-facts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2442,"href":"https:\/\/hr-management-dimensions.co.uk\/HRMDmn\/key-hr-facts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530\/revisions\/2442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hr-management-dimensions.co.uk\/HRMDmn\/key-hr-facts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hr-management-dimensions.co.uk\/HRMDmn\/key-hr-facts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hr-management-dimensions.co.uk\/HRMDmn\/key-hr-facts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}