Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans his Department has to review the (a) weekly income limit, (b) maximum number of qualifying years and (c) other eligibility criteria and limitations on the Statutory Redundancy Pay Scheme.

Any employee who is dismissed due to redundancy and who satisfies certain qualifying conditions has a statutory entitlement to a lump sum from their employer, based on their age, length of service and contractual weekly earnings, subject to a statutory upper limit, payable at, or soon after, the dismissal date.

The statutory redundancy scheme is intended to provide a minimum “safety net” of entitlement for vulnerable employees, and the legislation leaves the parties free to negotiate and agree improvements on the statutory entitlement according to their own priorities, needs and circumstances.

We introduced new legislation which commenced on 31 July to ensure that furloughed employees who are subsequently made redundant receive statutory redundancy pay, statutory notice pay, unfair dismissal compensation and pay for short-time working based on the employee’s normal pay, rather than their furlough pay (potentially 80% of their normal wage). The Government has always urged employers to do the right thing and not seek to disadvantage furloughed employees who are facing redundancy.