Lay-offs and short-time working

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1. Overview

Your employer can ask you to stay at home or take unpaid leave if there鈥檚 not enough work for you.

A lay-off is if you鈥檙e off work for at least 1 working day. Short-time working is when your hours are cut.

How long you can be laid off

There鈥檚 no limit for how long you can be laid off or put on short-time. You could apply for redundancy and claim redundancy pay if it鈥檚 been:

  • 4 weeks in a row
  • 6 weeks in a 13-week period

Lay-off pay entitlement and short-time working payments

You should get your full pay unless your contract allows unpaid or reduced pay lay-offs.

If you鈥檙e unpaid, you鈥檙e entitled to guarantee pay.

2. Guarantee pay

Rate and length of statutory lay-off pay

You鈥檙e entitled to guarantee pay during lay off or short-time working. The maximum you can get is 拢38 a day for 5 days in any 3-month period - so a maximum of 拢190.

If you usually earn less than 拢38 a day, you鈥檒l get your normal daily rate.

If you work part-time, your entitlement is worked out proportionally.

You cannot claim guarantee pay for any day that you do some work.

Eligibility for statutory lay-off pay

You must:

  • have been employed continuously for 1 month (includes part-time workers)
  • reasonably make sure you鈥檙e available for work
  • not refuse any reasonable alternative work (including work not in your contract)
  • not have been laid off because of industrial action

Statutory lay-off pay and your employment contract

Your employer may have their own guarantee pay scheme. It cannot be less than the statutory arrangements. If you get your employer鈥檚 payments, you do not get statutory lay-off pay on top of this.

Not paying guarantee pay counts as an unlawful deduction from your wages - you could make a claim to an employment tribunal.

3. Applying for redundancy

You could apply for redundancy and claim redundancy pay if you鈥檝e been laid off without pay or put on short-time and receive less than half a week鈥檚 pay for:

  • 4 or more weeks in a row
  • 6 or more weeks in a 13-week period

  1. Write to your employer to claim redundancy within 4 weeks of the last day of the lay-off or short-time period.

  2. Your employer has 7 days to accept your claim or give you a written counter-notice.

  3. If your employer does not give you counter-notice, you can assume they鈥檝e accepted your redundancy claim.

  4. A counter-notice means your employer expects work will soon be available - it must start within 4 weeks and must last at least 13 weeks.

Your employer can withdraw their counter-notice in writing.

Resigning

You must resign to get redundancy pay. The timing is crucial - you have 3 weeks to hand in your notice, starting from:

  • 7 days after you gave written notice to your employer (if you did not get a counter-notice)
  • the date your employer withdrew their counter-notice

You can get help from

4. Extra work or claiming benefits

You can take on another job while you鈥檙e laid off or on short-time (unless your contract says you must not).

You should:

  • get your employer鈥檚 agreement
  • make sure you鈥檙e not working for a competitor
  • make sure you鈥檙e available for your original job once the lay-off or short-time ends

Benefits you can claim

You might be able to get Universal Credit or New Style Jobseeker鈥檚 Allowance (or both) while you鈥檙e laid off or on short-time.