What is a letter before action?

A letter before action (LBA) is a formal notice sent before starting court proceedings. It sets out your claim, the legal basis (e.g. Consumer Rights Act 2015, Housing Act 1988), the remedy you seek, and a deadline to respond — typically 14 days. Civil Procedure Rules require this step before most court claims, and courts take a dim view of parties who skip it.

Can I write my own legal letter?

Yes. You do not need a solicitor to write a legal letter. What matters is citing the correct legislation, stating your claim with precise dates and amounts, and giving a clear deadline. A well-drafted letter citing the right Act and section often resolves disputes without court proceedings — and costs nothing extra to send.

Does a legal letter actually work?

In many cases, yes. Most businesses, landlords, and employers respond when they receive a formally worded letter that cites specific legislation and mentions court or tribunal proceedings as the next step. It signals you know your rights and are prepared to escalate — which is often enough to get a resolution.

What UK legislation covers consumer complaints and refunds?

The Consumer Rights Act 2015 is the primary law. Section 9 requires goods to be of satisfactory quality; section 20 gives you the right to a full refund within 30 days if goods are faulty. For services, section 49 requires reasonable care and skill. For distance/online purchases, the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 give you a 14-day cooling-off period.

23 August 2026

Made Redundant? Your Redundancy Pay, Your Rights, and When It's Actually Unfair (UK)

Being told your role no longer exists is unsettling even when it is handled well. Once the news has sunk in, there are really two separate legal questions worth answering: are you getting the redundancy pay you are actually owed, and was the redundancy itself genuine and handled fairly? A surprising number of employers get the first one wrong — miscounting service, ignoring the statutory cap, or simply hoping you will not check — and a genuine-sounding redundancy can still be an unlawful dismissal if the process behind it was not fair. A clear, firmly worded letter setting out your statutory entitlements is very often what actually gets a reluctant employer to pay what you are owed. Here is how the rules work.

General information for Great Britain — England, Scotland and Wales (Northern Ireland has separate, broadly similar law with its own figures — see below). Not legal advice. Current as at August 2026 — the £ figures below change every 6 April, so always check gov.uk before relying on a number.

Do you even qualify?

Statutory redundancy pay is not available to everyone who loses a job for redundancy reasons. Under section 155 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, you generally need:

To be a genuine employee — most workers, agency staff, and the genuinely self-employed are not covered; and
At least two years’ continuous service, ending on the date your employment terminates.

If you are just short of two years, the calculation date and your exact notice entitlement can matter — do not assume you are excluded without checking the precise dates carefully.

How much: the calculation

Statutory redundancy pay is worked out under section 162 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 using your age and length of service, counting back from your termination date, capped at 20 years’ service:

0.5 week’s pay for each full year you were under 22;
1 week’s pay for each full year you were 22 to 40;
1.5 weeks’ pay for each full year you were 41 or older.

“A week’s pay” for this purpose is not necessarily your real weekly pay — it is capped at a statutory maximum that is reviewed every year.

The current figures — date-stamped

From 6 April 2026, a week’s pay for redundancy purposes is capped at £751, which makes the maximum possible statutory redundancy payment £22,530 (20 years × 1.5 weeks × £751). These figures uprate every 6 April — they are not fixed for good, so always check gov.uk for the figures that apply in the current tax year before you rely on a number. Northern Ireland runs entirely separate legislation with its own figures (currently a £783 weekly cap and a £23,490 maximum) — do not use the Great Britain figures if you are employed there.

What legally counts as redundancy

Under section 139 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, a dismissal is only a redundancy if it is because:

the business (or the part of it you work in) is closing down entirely;
your specific workplace is closing or relocating; or
the need for employees to do your kind of work has reduced or ceased, whether generally or at your location.

If none of those genuinely applies, calling it “redundancy” does not make it one — see the section below on sham redundancies.

Employers must also consider suitable alternative employment (sections 138 and 141). If you are offered a suitable alternative role and you unreasonably refuse it, you can lose your right to redundancy pay. You are entitled to a statutory trial period (normally four weeks) in the new role to see if it genuinely suits you without losing your redundancy rights during that trial.

A genuine redundancy can still be an unfair dismissal

Even where the redundancy situation itself is real, the dismissal can still be legally unfair under section 98(4) of the Employment Rights Act 1996 if the process was not fair — for example no proper consultation, a selection pool or scoring criteria that was not fair or objective, or no genuine look at alternatives to dismissal. The courts have held that a fair process along these lines is what is expected of a reasonable employer. Selection is automatically unfair under section 105 if the real reason you were picked was a protected one — for example pregnancy or maternity, whistleblowing, trade union membership or activities, or raising a genuine health and safety concern. Where an employer uses “redundancy” as cover to get rid of someone for another reason entirely, that is sometimes called a sham redundancy, and it does not survive scrutiny at tribunal.

Consultation

If an employer proposes 20 or more redundancies at one establishment within a 90-day period, a collective consultation duty kicks in under section 188 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992: consultation with recognised unions or elected employee representatives must start in good time, and dismissals cannot take effect before a minimum period has run — at least 30 days for 20–99 proposed redundancies, or at least 45 days for 100 or more. Below 20 redundancies there is no collective duty, but you are still entitled to meaningful individual consultation as part of a fair dismissal process — skipping it is one of the most common reasons a redundancy is found unfair.

A note on where the law is heading: the Employment Rights Act 2025 proposes moving to a single organisation-wide 20+ threshold (rather than per-establishment), but that change is not yet in force — it remains under government consultation and is not expected before 2027. What has changed already is the penalty for getting consultation wrong: from 6 April 2026, the maximum protective award for a failure to collectively consult doubled from 90 to 180 days’ pay per affected employee. Always check gov.uk and ACAS for the current position before relying on any of this.

Notice pay is separate from redundancy pay

Redundancy pay does not replace your notice entitlement — they are two different things, both owed. You are entitled to at least your statutory minimum notice under section 86 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 (broadly one week per complete year of service, capped at 12 weeks) or a longer period if your contract provides for it, either worked or paid in lieu. During your notice period you also have a statutory right to reasonable paid time off to look for new work or arrange training under section 52.

The deadline trap

This is the point people get wrong most often. A claim purely for unpaid statutory redundancy pay has a 6-month time limit under section 164 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 — not the 3 months people associate with employment tribunal claims. But if you are also claiming unfair dismissal, that claim runs on the much shorter three-months-less-one-day clock under section 111 — so do not sit on your hands just because the redundancy-pay deadline feels longer. ACAS Early Conciliation is mandatory before either claim, and since 1 December 2025 the Early Conciliation period can now run for up to 12 weeks, pausing the clock while it does. If your employer is insolvent and genuinely cannot pay, you can claim your statutory redundancy pay (and other sums owed) from the Redundancy Payments Service, funded by the National Insurance Fund, subject to the same statutory caps.

Myths worth binning

“Redundancy pay is always tax-free.” Not entirely — only the first £30,000 of a genuine termination payment is tax-free. Pay in lieu of notice and accrued holiday pay are ordinary earnings and are fully taxable, even when bundled into the same cheque.
“My employer has to pay enhanced redundancy pay.” Only if your contract or a collective agreement promises it. Enhanced redundancy pay is a contractual extra, not a legal minimum — many employers pay only the statutory amount.
“I was furloughed / put on notice, so it’s automatically redundancy.” No — furlough and being warned of possible redundancy are not the same as an actual redundancy dismissal, and do not by themselves trigger any payment.
“A generous pay-off means the process doesn’t matter.” A large settlement does not retrospectively cure an unfair selection process or a failure to consult — the two issues (money and fairness) are legally separate.

What to do

Start by checking your continuous service date and using the calculation above (gov.uk publishes an official redundancy pay calculator) to work out what you should be owed. If the figure your employer has offered does not match, or you were never offered anything at all, put it in writing — set out your service dates, the calculation you believe applies, and a clear deadline for payment. If you also think the redundancy itself was not genuine, or the process cut corners, say so and reserve your position on an unfair dismissal claim. If it is not resolved, escalate to ACAS Early Conciliation well within your deadline.

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Sources: Employment Rights Act 1996 (sections 52, 86, 98, 105, 138, 139, 141, 155, 162, 164); Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 (section 188); Employment Rights Act 2025 (collective consultation threshold proposals, not yet in force); The Employment Rights (Increase of Limits) Order 2026 (figures effective 6 April 2026); ACAS Early Conciliation rules (Early Conciliation period, extended from 1 December 2025); gov.uk statutory redundancy pay calculator and guidance; Redundancy Payments Service guidance; Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996 and Northern Ireland redundancy figures. Current as at August 2026. Forms and figures change every 6 April — always check gov.uk. General information for Great Britain, not legal advice.