Redundancy in the UK: Your Rights, and What to Do in the First Two Weeks
Redundancy has become common enough that it rarely carries the stigma it once did. What has not kept pace is how well most people understand what they are actually entitled to when it happens, or what to prioritise in the disorienting fortnight that follows.
New figures from the Office for National Statistics, published 15 September 2026, put the UK redundancy rate at 3.9 per 1,000 employees for May to July 2026, with an estimated 114,000 people made redundant over that period. It is a reminder that redundancy is not a rare, isolated event happening to other people. It is a structural feature of the current labour market, and knowing your rights before you need them is worth far more than working them out afterwards.
What you are legally entitled to
Three things determine what you should receive: your length of service, your age during each year of service, and your weekly pay.
Notice period
Unless your contract specifies something more generous, UK law sets a statutory minimum notice period based on how long you have worked for your employer:
- Between one month and two years of service: at least one week's notice.
- Between two and twelve years of service: one week's notice for each full year worked.
- Twelve years of service or more: twelve weeks' notice, which is the statutory maximum regardless of how much longer you have been there.
Your employer can offer more than this. They cannot legally offer less.
Statutory redundancy pay
To qualify for statutory redundancy pay, you generally need at least two years of continuous service. The formula is based on age during each year worked, not your age now:
- Half a week's pay for each full year worked while under 22.
- One week's pay for each full year worked while 22 or older but under 41.
- One and a half weeks' pay for each full year worked while 41 or older.
Service is capped at 20 years for the purposes of this calculation. Weekly pay is capped too. As of 6 April 2026, the weekly pay figure used in the calculation is capped at £751, even if you earn more than that, which puts the maximum possible statutory redundancy payment at £22,530.
Your employer may offer a more generous, contractual redundancy package on top of or instead of the statutory minimum. Read any settlement agreement carefully, and ask what happens to notice pay, accrued holiday, and any bonus or commission you were on track to receive.
What to actually do in the first two weeks
The legal entitlements are the easy part to look up. The harder part is knowing what to prioritise when you are still absorbing the news.
Get everything in writing. Your redundancy notice, the reason given, your leaving date, and the final pay and benefits calculation should all be documented. If a conversation happens verbally, ask for written confirmation afterwards.
Check whether the process itself was fair. Genuine redundancy is about the role, not the person. If you were the only one considered, if there was no consultation, or if the "redundant" role was advertised again shortly afterwards, it is worth getting independent advice before you sign anything.
Update your CV and LinkedIn profile before you need them, not after. The instinct in the first few days is often to either apply everywhere immediately or to avoid the job search entirely. Both tend to produce weaker outcomes than spending two or three focused days first getting an honest, current picture of how your profile reads to someone outside your last organisation.
Understand your actual runway. Redundancy pay, notice pay, any accrued holiday, and your eligibility for Universal Credit or New Style Jobseeker's Allowance all affect how much time you genuinely have. Working this out precisely, rather than estimating anxiously, tends to lower the pressure to accept the first offer that appears.
Decide what you are targeting before you start applying. A redundancy often lands people back in the job market with less clarity about direction than they had the first time around, simply because the previous role picked the direction for them. Getting clear on what you are actually looking for, before volume-applying, is usually the highest-leverage thing you can do in week one.
Redundancy is disruptive, but it is also one of the few moments in a career where you are forced to look at your position properly rather than drifting. Understanding your rights removes one source of anxiety. Using the time deliberately, rather than reactively, is what tends to separate a difficult few months from a genuinely good next move.
If you want an honest, outside read on how your CV and profile currently present, that is exactly what Karro is built for: upload your CV and it will show you where you stand before you start applying.