Relaunch Your Career

What should I say about my compromise agreement when I attend interviews?

You should simply say that you were made redundant. You should not mention the compromise agreement, especially if, as part of the agreement, you have agreed to keep its existence confidential. You may be asked whether you were one of a number of people that were laid off, or whether it was just you. If so, be honest and say it was just you. If you are asked why, it would be truthful to say that there was a reorganisation (because, whatever happened to your role after you left, there will have been a reorganisation of the responsibilities you held). It would be unusual for an employer or recruiter to ask more than this.

What should I say to the Job Centre about my compromise agreement when I sign on?

You should say you were made redundant. They may well ask for paperwork to support this.

A compromise agreement should not be seen as ‘voluntarily leaving your job’ or ‘being dismissed’ because you had no intention of leaving your job. In most cases, prior to the negotiation of the compromise agreement, the employer had been trying to engineer your departure against your will.

Nevertheless, Job Centres do not always see things the same way. To avoid complications, during the negotiation of your compromise agreement, you should see if your representative can negotiate for you to have a separate letter simply stating that you have been made redundant. If this is not forthcoming, or you didn’t receive this during the negotiation, try emailing the HR representative who dealt with your case, copying your own representative, and ask them to send you a mail by return confirming that you were made redundant.

Together with your P45, and/or the paperwork which contains the calculation of your settlement, which will show tax rules applied as for a normal redundancy, this should satisfy the Job Centre.