My Employment Rights

In April, the Government announced an increase would be made to the amount of a statutory "week's pay."

For many employment law purposes, particularly the calculation of a redundancy payment, the amount of a week's pay is capped. The cap is usually reviewed annually, with increases being implemented at the beginning of February each year.

From February this year, the amount increased to £350. In the Budget, it was announced that this figure would be increased to £380, to provide extra assistance to those facing redundancy. However, no mention was made as to when this would take effect. Consequently, there was much confusion, as employees immediately began to expect the higher amount.

The Government has now moved to clarify this conclusion. It has announced that the increase will be effective from 1 October 2009. However, it also explained that there would be no subsequent increase next February and the cap will therefore remain the same until February 2001.