Written by solicitor Thomas Meier-Bading 2025-10-27 at 12:53

Severance pay after dismissal

Ø Reading time: 2 min.

Am I entitled to severance pay?

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Anyone who receives a notice of termination is suddenly faced with many questions: Was it even legal? Am I entitled to severance pay? And is it worth going to a solicitor – or will that just be expensive?

You don’t want to go back to your old job. And even if you do, believe me, you don’t want to. The relationship is broken, the trust is gone. But this is precisely where an opportunity arises – with the right strategy, it is often possible to negotiate a fair severance payment.

Of course, the usual advice still applies after dismissal: do not sign anything without checking it first and register as unemployed immediately.

Deadlines: the clock is ticking

The anchor for a severance payment is the threat of an unfair dismissal claim, which I will explain later. In any case, this must be filed within 3 weeks of receiving the notice of dismissal. If you miss this deadline, there is usually nothing you can do. Therefore, don’t ponder too long, take action instead.

You can find out how high your severance payment can be, when it makes sense and what the unfair dismissal claim actually has to do with it (even though you don’t want to go back to the job) in my free, compact information folder (.pdf, 5 A4 pages, clearly laid out in three columns). Ideal for reading on the go or printing out – whichever you prefer.
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Note: this website describes the situation in Germany.