Made redundant: what to do next

First, the practical essentials

Redundancy can be a shock even when it was expected. In the first days, focus on the things that protect you: understand what you are being paid and when, keep copies of your letters, and check your rights using official guidance rather than hearsay.

This guide cannot give individual legal, benefits or investment advice. Free, impartial services exist for exactly that, and they are worth using before you commit any redundancy money to anything.

• Read the official government factsheet on what to do when you have been made redundant.
• Use MoneyHelper's free guidance on job loss and budgeting.
• Speak to Citizens Advice or your union if anything about the process seems wrong.

Give yourself a short pause before big decisions

It is natural to want to fix things quickly. A short, deliberate pause — even a couple of weeks — helps you separate what you want next from what you are afraid of. Redundancy money in particular deserves care: avoid committing it to anything under time pressure.

Then look at what your experience could lead to

Once the essentials are covered, list what you actually did day to day: the problems you solved, the people you looked after, the processes you kept running. Those skills travel. They may point to a similar role elsewhere, retraining, freelancing, or exploring a business of your own.

Any business option, including an independent travel-related one, should be judged on the same terms as everything else: what it costs, what it asks of you, and what is genuinely uncertain.

Further reading

Independent, impartial sources. They open in a new tab and are not connected to LuvToTravel.

• GOV.UK — What to do when you've been made redundant
• MoneyHelper — Job loss