If you've just been told you're being made redundant, one of the first questions is: how much notice should I actually get?
You're entitled to a minimum notice period set by law. If your contract gives you more, you get the longer amount. Your employer can't give you less than the statutory minimum, no matter what.
Let's break down exactly what you're owed.
Statutory notice periods
The law sets a minimum amount of notice your employer must give you. This comes from section 86 of the Employment Rights Act 1996.
Here's how it works:
Less than one month's service. No statutory notice required.
One month to two years. You're entitled to at least one week's notice.
Two to twelve years. You get one week's notice for each complete year you've worked there. So five years of service means five weeks' notice. Ten years means ten weeks.
Twelve years or more. The maximum statutory notice is 12 weeks. Even if you've been there 25 years, statutory notice caps at 12 weeks.
These are minimums. Your contract might give you more, and if it does, that's what counts.
What if my contract says something different?
Your contract can give you a longer notice period than the statutory minimum, and many do. Senior employees often have three or six months' notice in their contracts.
You're always entitled to whichever is longer: the statutory minimum or your contractual notice. Your employer can't override the statutory minimum by putting a shorter period in your contract.
So if you've worked somewhere for eight years (meaning eight weeks' statutory notice) but your contract says 12 weeks, you get 12 weeks. If your contract says four weeks but you've got eight years' service, you get eight weeks.
Check your contract. It's in there somewhere, usually under "termination" or "notice period."
Working your notice, garden leave, and PILON
Your employer has three ways to handle your notice period. Each one works differently and has different consequences for you.
Working notice is the most straightforward. You carry on going to work, doing your job, and getting paid as normal until your notice period runs out. Your pension, health insurance, and all other benefits keep running. Holiday keeps building up. Nothing changes except you know an end date is coming.
Garden leave means you stop coming to work but you're still technically employed. You stay at home, you keep getting paid through the normal payroll, and all your benefits continue. Holiday keeps accruing too. You just don't have to turn up. For most people, this is the best outcome because you get all the financial benefits of being employed without having to work. The main restriction is that you usually can't start a new job until the garden leave ends.
PILON (Pay In Lieu Of Notice) means your employer ends your employment immediately and pays you a lump sum to cover what you would have earned during your notice period. It's quick, but your benefits stop straight away. No more pension contributions, no health insurance, no holiday accruing. The upside is you're free to start a new job immediately. We've written a detailed guide to how PILON works and how it's taxed.
If you have a choice, garden leave is usually the best deal. But it depends on your situation.
What you're entitled to during your notice period
As long as you're still employed (which covers both working notice and garden leave), you keep all your normal employment rights.
Full pay. Your normal salary, paid in the usual way. If your pay varies, notice pay is calculated based on the average you earned per week over the 12 weeks before your notice period started.
Benefits. Pension contributions, health insurance, company car, phone, and any other contractual benefits all continue.
Holiday. You keep accruing holiday during your notice period. If you've got unused holiday, you can either take it during notice or be paid for it when you leave.
Time off to look for work. If you've been continuously employed for two years or more, you're legally entitled to reasonable time off during working hours to look for a new job or arrange training. Your employer has to pay you for this, although the maximum they're required to pay is 40% of a week's pay, regardless of how much time you take.
Can your employer make you work during notice?
Yes, generally they can. Unless they've put you on garden leave or agreed to PILON, they can expect you to keep working through your notice period. That's what working notice means.
Some people assume they can just stop turning up once they've been told they're redundant. That's not how it works. If you stop coming to work without agreement, your employer could treat it as misconduct. That could affect your redundancy pay.
If you want to stop working before your notice ends, talk to your employer about garden leave or PILON instead of just not showing up.
Can you leave early during your notice period?
Maybe. But you need your employer's agreement.
If you've been given notice of redundancy and you want to leave before the notice period ends, you can give your employer what's called a counter-notice. Under section 136(3) of the Employment Rights Act 1996, you're still treated as having been dismissed by your employer, which means your right to redundancy pay is preserved.
But there's a catch. Under section 142, your employer can serve you a written notice asking you to withdraw your counter-notice and stay until the original end date. If you ignore that and leave anyway, your employer could contest your redundancy payment. A tribunal can still award it if they think it's fair, but it adds uncertainty.
You'll only get paid up to the date you actually leave, not the full notice period. So think carefully about whether leaving early is worth it.
If you've got a new job starting soon and your employer won't agree to release you early, it's worth having an honest conversation. Most employers will be reasonable about it, especially if you're being made redundant anyway.
What happens if your employer doesn't give you enough notice?
If your employer gives you less notice than you're legally entitled to and doesn't make a proper PILON payment to cover the difference, that's a breach of contract. In employment law, this is called wrongful dismissal.
Wrongful dismissal is different from unfair dismissal. Unfair dismissal is about whether the reason for sacking you was fair. Wrongful dismissal is specifically about not getting the notice (or notice pay) you were contractually entitled to.
You can bring a wrongful dismissal claim in the employment tribunal (for amounts up to £25,000) or in the county court (for larger amounts). The compensation is straightforward: it's the pay and benefits you would have received during the notice period you should have been given.
If this has happened to you, it's worth raising it with your employer first. Sometimes it's a genuine mistake, and they'll correct it. If they won't, you might want to consider negotiating a better package that includes what you're owed.
How notice pay is taxed
This is important because a lot of people get confused about it.
Notice pay is always taxed as normal earnings. Whether you work your notice, get garden leave pay, or receive PILON, it's all subject to income tax and National Insurance. This has been the case for all notice pay since April 2018, when the Post-Employment Notice Pay (PENP) rules came in under ITEPA 2003, s.402D.
Before April 2018, there was a loophole where some PILON payments could be treated as tax-free. That's gone now. All notice pay is taxed as earnings, regardless of whether your contract includes a PILON clause or not.
Notice pay does NOT count towards the £30,000 tax-free threshold. That threshold only applies to redundancy pay and any additional termination payment. Your notice pay sits completely outside it.
For more on how your redundancy money is taxed, including the £30,000 threshold and what counts towards it, read our guide to redundancy pay tax.
Notice pay and redundancy pay are separate things
This is a point that catches a lot of people out. Your notice pay and your redundancy pay are two completely separate entitlements. Your employer has to pay you both.
Some employers try to bundle them together into one number, which makes the package look bigger than it is. Or worse, they'll try to say your notice period "runs concurrently" with your redundancy, which can mean they're effectively using your redundancy pay to cover your notice.
Don't let that happen. Ask for a clear breakdown showing:
Redundancy pay (tax-free up to £30,000). This is based on your age, length of service, and weekly pay.
Notice pay (taxed as earnings). This is your salary for the notice period, whether worked, on garden leave, or paid as PILON.
Holiday pay for any untaken holiday.
If your employer isn't separating these out, push back. The tax treatment is different for each component, and getting the breakdown wrong could cost you money. For more on this, see our PILON guide.
What should I do next?
Start by checking your contract for your notice period. Compare it to the statutory minimum based on your length of service. You're entitled to whichever is longer.
If you think your employer is getting your notice period wrong, or bundling your notice pay in with your redundancy pay, raise it with them. If they won't fix it, you might be able to negotiate a better deal.
You can use our free redundancy calculator to work out exactly what you're owed, including both your redundancy pay and your notice pay.
This article is general guidance about UK redundancy rights. It's not legal advice and shouldn't be treated as a substitute for advice from a qualified employment solicitor.