# payroll.redundancy-pay
Statutory redundancy pay in Great Britain (Employment Rights Act 1996 s.162):
- Count the completed years of continuous employment ending with the relevant
date (hr.length-of-service, both ends inclusive). Under two years there is
no entitlement (s.155).
- Reckon **backwards** from the relevant date, at most 20 years (s.162(3)).
- Each year earns half a week's pay if the employee was under 22 during it, a
week's pay if 22 to 40, and a week and a half if 41 or over (s.162(2)).
- A week's pay is capped (s.227(1)) at the figure in force on the relevant date.
**Age is taken year by year, not at the relevant date.** A year counts at a
rate only if the employee was at least that age throughout it, so the age that
matters is the age on the first day of each counted year. Someone who turns 22
on the relevant date has two years at the under-22 rate, not two at 22+. This is
the reading the published ready reckoners use (age 22 with two years' service
is one week; age 23 is one and a half) and the one a naive "age today x years"
calculation gets wrong.
The amount is `halfWeeks x weeklyPayUsed / 2`, rounded half-up to the penny.
The statute does not specify rounding; the only fraction possible is a half
penny, which is paid up.
**Caps** (data/week-pay-caps.json, by relevant date):
| From | Cap |
|---|---|
| 6 April 2023 | £643 |
| 6 April 2024 | £700 |
| 6 April 2025 | £719 |
| 6 April 2026 | £751 |
The newest cap has no end date: when the next Order is made, publish a new
version. A build installed with `history=current` refuses relevant dates
before the caps it still carries.
Not covered: working out a week's pay (s.221-229, the 12-week average for
variable hours), the relevant date itself (s.145, including the notice
extension), Northern Ireland's separate limits, exclusions (s.140-144) and
enhanced contractual schemes.
Sources:
- Employment Rights Act 1996 s.162, "Amount of a redundancy payment",
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1996/18/section/162
- Employment Rights Act 1996 s.155, "Qualifying period of employment",
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1996/18/section/155
- The Employment Rights (Increase of Limits) Order 2023 (SI 2023/318),
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2023/318/made (£571 to £643 from 6 April 2023)
- The Employment Rights (Increase of Limits) Order 2024 (SI 2024/213),
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2024/213/made (£643 to £700 from 6 April 2024)
- The Employment Rights (Increase of Limits) Order 2025 (SI 2025/348),
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2025/348/made (£700 to £719 from 6 April 2025)
- The Employment Rights (Increase of Limits) Order 2026 (SI 2026/310),
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2026/310/made (£719 to £751 from 6 April 2026)
- GOV.UK, "Redundancy: your rights - statutory redundancy pay",
https://www.gov.uk/redundancy-your-rights/redundancy-pay (£751 cap and
£22,530 maximum from 6 April 2026)
## Before you rely on this
**Not professional advice.** This capability calculates payroll figures from published rules. It is a software component for developers, not tax or legal advice. Rules change and every rate here has an effective date. Check that the dates cover your case. Verify results against the official sources listed above, and have a payroll specialist review how you use it, before anyone relies on the output. Provided "as is" under its licence, without warranty.
**Unreviewed.** This capability's implementations agree in every language and pass its published test vectors, which were worked out from the official sources cited. But no qualified payroll specialist has yet checked those vectors, or confirmed that the capability covers the cases it claims. Treat it as a draft. Do not use it for real people, money or decisions without your own expert review. Once a qualified reviewer signs off, this notice is replaced with their name, qualification and the date. Each new version needs fresh sign-off.
## Notices
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government
Licence v3.0 (https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/).
Legislation: Crown copyright and database right.
1.0.1 marks it unreviewed and adds its attribution notices (NOTICE). The code and the tests are unchanged.