Statutory minimum notice

UK law sets minimum notice periods for employees being made redundant. These are: one week's notice for each complete year of service, up to a maximum of 12 weeks. So if you've worked for your employer for 5 years, you're entitled to a minimum of 5 weeks' notice. If you've been there 15 years, you're capped at 12 weeks. These are minimums, your contract may (and often does) specify a longer notice period, in which case the contractual period takes precedence. Your employer cannot give you less notice than your legal minimum or your contractual entitlement, whichever is higher.

Contractual notice

Your contract of employment should specify your notice period. For junior roles this might be one month. For senior employees it's often three months, and for very senior or specialist roles it can be six months or more. Check your contract carefully, and not just the main body but also any side letters or variation agreements you've signed. If your contract is silent on notice, the statutory minimum applies. If you've been with the company long enough that your statutory entitlement exceeds your contractual notice, the statutory minimum overrides the contract.

Working your notice vs garden leave

There are two ways to serve a notice period: working it (turning up and doing your job until the end) or being placed on garden leave. Garden leave means you stop working but remain employed, your employment continues, you're paid your full salary and benefits, but you're asked not to come into the office or contact clients. Employers use garden leave to protect confidential information and client relationships. From your perspective, garden leave counts as employment, which means your benefits continue and your statutory redundancy calculation period extends. It's typically preferable to a payment in lieu of notice (PILON).

Payment in lieu of notice (PILON)

Instead of having you work or serve garden leave, your employer may offer to pay you a lump sum equivalent to your salary during the notice period. This is called a payment in lieu of notice (PILON). PILON is taxable in full. It doesn't benefit from the £30,000 tax-free threshold that applies to redundancy pay. If your contract contains a PILON clause, your employer can exercise it. If it doesn't, a PILON is technically a payment in exchange for your employer breaching the contract by not giving you notice, which has different legal implications and tax treatment. Always check your contract before agreeing to a PILON.

Benefits during notice

During your notice period, whether working, on garden leave, or receiving a PILON, your contractual benefits should continue. This includes pension contributions, private health insurance, any bonus accrual during the period, share vesting (check your scheme rules carefully), and accrued holiday. Holiday that you've accrued but not taken by the end of employment must be paid out — work out how many days you're owed with our holiday pay calculator. If you have a bonus due during or just after your notice period, the question of whether you're entitled to it can be complex and depends on your contract wording, it's worth checking with a solicitor.

Notice pay and statutory redundancy pay

Notice pay and redundancy pay are separate entitlements. You should receive both. A common error is for employers (or employees) to conflate the two, as if one replaces the other. Your statutory redundancy pay is calculated on your complete years of service. Your notice pay is based on your notice period. Both are owed to you. If you're receiving a settlement agreement, check that it separately accounts for and pays both, and that the total reflects your actual entitlements rather than bundling everything into a single undifferentiated 'severance' figure.