Redundancy and notice period advice

My employer is in administration and i have unofficially been told that i will be made redundant on the 23rd or 24th March. I have a letter from the administrators saying that until further notice i am employed by them to carry out normal duties so no formal notice of redundancy has been given yet.

On the 23rd or 24th March we will lose our jobs there and then and presumably therefore be put on notice (which is 1 month according to my contract). We will not be required to work during that period so i have found a new job to start on 29th March.


Can my notice period overlap with a new job if my old employer has said i do not need to work during this period?

The main reason i'm asking is that if my notice period runs beyond the 31st of March, i will get another week's worth of redundancy pay as this takes me past my 3 year anniversary and this will help with travel costs for my new job!

Thanks.

If you are not required to work your notice then you certainly can start another job, but you should clarify whether you will get pay in lieu of notice (in which case your employment has ended) or "gardening leave" (you continue in employment but are not required to attend work). In the latter case you ought not to work for a new employer (unless you have written permission from the old one as proof) because (a) in law they could call you back to work and failure to attend would be a disciplinary offence and (b) if you are doing two jobs at the same time you are going to get hammered by tax!