Redundancy Notice Period: Your Statutory and Contractual Rights

When you're made redundant, your employer must give you a minimum notice period — or pay you in lieu of notice. Understanding the difference between statutory and contractual notice, and how pay in lieu works, is essential for knowing exactly what you're owed.

Statutory Notice Periods

UK employment law sets minimum notice periods based on how long you've worked for your employer. These are the bare minimum — your contract may give you longer notice, but it can never give you less than the statutory entitlement.

• Less than 1 month: No statutory notice required
• 1 month to 2 years: 1 week's notice
• 2 to 12 years: 1 week per complete year of service (e.g., 5 years = 5 weeks)
• 12 years or more: 12 weeks' notice (this is the maximum statutory requirement)

Use our calculator's Notice Period mode to quickly determine your statutory notice entitlement and compare it with any contractual notice in your employment agreement.

Contractual Notice

Your employment contract may specify a longer notice period than the statutory minimum. For example, many professional roles include a 3-month contractual notice period regardless of length of service. If your contractual notice is longer than the statutory minimum, your employer must honour the contractual period. If your contract specifies a shorter period than the statutory minimum, the statutory minimum applies instead — you always get whichever is longer.

Check your original employment contract or any subsequent written terms for the notice clause. If you don't have a written contract, the statutory minimums apply. In practice, many employers provide notice periods that exceed the statutory requirement, particularly for senior or long-serving employees.

Pay in Lieu of Notice (PILON)

Your employer may choose to pay you instead of requiring you to work your notice period. This is known as pay in lieu of notice (PILON). The employer can either ask you to work your notice, put you on garden leave (where you remain employed but don't come to work), or pay you PILON and end your employment immediately.

Since April 2018, all PILON is subject to income tax and National Insurance, regardless of whether your contract contains a PILON clause. The taxable amount is calculated as the basic pay you would have received during the notice period — this is called "post-employment notice pay" (PENP). This is important because it affects how much of your overall termination payment falls within the £30,000 tax-free exemption for redundancy pay. Read more in our tax guide.

Garden Leave

Garden leave means you remain employed during your notice period but don't attend the workplace. You continue to receive your normal pay and benefits, and you remain bound by your contract terms — including any restrictive covenants. This is common when employers want to prevent you from joining a competitor immediately or accessing sensitive information during the notice period. From your perspective, garden leave is generally preferable to PILON because you continue to accrue pension contributions and other benefits.

Notice During Redundancy Consultation

If your employer is making 20 or more employees redundant at one establishment within 90 days, they must follow collective consultation rules. The minimum consultation period is 30 days for 20–99 redundancies, or 45 days for 100 or more. Your individual notice period begins after the consultation process concludes and you receive your formal notice of redundancy. The consultation period and notice period are separate — they don't run concurrently unless agreed otherwise.

What If Your Employer Doesn't Give Proper Notice?

If your employer fails to give you the correct notice, you may have a claim for wrongful dismissal. This is different from unfair dismissal — wrongful dismissal specifically relates to breach of contract regarding the notice period. You would typically be entitled to claim the pay you should have received during the notice period you were denied. If you believe your employer has not given you proper notice, consider seeking advice from ACAS or a qualified employment lawyer.

Frequently Asked Questions