Being made redundant: your rights explained

Redundancy is one of the few fair reasons for dismissal in law, but that does not make every redundancy fair. Employers have to jump through specific hoops: genuine business reasons, a fair selection process, proper consultation and the right payments. Skip any of them and the dismissal can be challenged.

This guide pulls together your rights at each stage. If you already know the basics and want the numbers, our guide to redundancy pay has the current rates.

What redundancy actually means

A redundancy is only genuine when the job itself is disappearing, not the person. The law recognises three situations: the business closes, the workplace closes or moves, or the need for people doing your kind of work shrinks.

If you are "made redundant" and your employer advertises your exact job the following month, that is not redundancy. It is an ordinary dismissal dressed up as one, and it can be challenged as unfair dismissal.

Your core rights from day one

If you are told you are at risk of redundancy, you are entitled to all of the following:

• Meaningful consultation. Your employer must consult you individually, whatever the size of the business. If 20 or more roles are at risk within 90 days, collective consultation rules add minimum timeframes and elected representatives. The detail is in our redundancy consultation guide.
• Fair selection. If others do similar work, your employer must use a fair selection pool and objective criteria. "We just prefer the other person" is not a criterion.
• Notice. Statutory notice is one week per full year of service, up to 12 weeks, though your contract may give more. See redundancy notice periods.
• Redundancy pay. With two years' service you qualify for statutory redundancy pay, calculated from your age, service and weekly pay (capped at £751 a week in 2026/27). Many employers pay more.
• Time off to find work. In your notice period you can take reasonable paid time off to job hunt or train, capped at 40% of a week's pay.
• Suitable alternative employment. If your employer has a suitable vacancy, they must offer it to you rather than make you redundant. Unreasonably refusing a genuinely suitable offer can cost you your redundancy pay, so get advice before saying no.

What makes a redundancy unfair

A genuine redundancy can still be an unfair dismissal if the process is wrong. The classic failures:

• No consultation, or consultation that starts after the decision is final
• Rigged selection criteria, for example scoring you down for absence related to pregnancy or disability
• A pool of one, singling you out when others do the same job
• Failure to look for alternatives such as redeployment, reduced hours or volunteers

Selection is automatically unfair, and usually discriminatory, when it is because of pregnancy, maternity, disability, age, race, sex or another protected characteristic, or because you raised a grievance or asserted a legal right. If you are pregnant or on maternity leave you have extra protection, including priority for suitable vacancies: see pregnancy and maternity discrimination. The same principle applies where disability is in play, which we cover in disability discrimination at work during redundancy.

What changed in 2026

The Employment Rights Act 2025 doubled the maximum protective award for employers who skip collective consultation, from 90 days' pay to 180 days' pay per employee. That is a serious incentive for employers to consult properly, and serious compensation for you when they do not.

Should you take voluntary redundancy?

If your employer asks for volunteers, that is a negotiation, not an order. Enhanced packages are often on the table and you can say no. Our guide to voluntary redundancy walks through the decision.

What to do right now

If you have been told you are at risk: ask for the selection criteria and your scores in writing, keep notes of every meeting, and do not resign, however pressured you feel. Resigning can destroy your right to redundancy pay.

If the process feels rigged, or your "redundancy" feels like an excuse, talk to a specialist before you sign anything. Match My Solicitor connects you with employment solicitors who handle redundancies every day, starting with a free initial conversation. Tell us what happened and we will match you within 24 hours.