Free tool
Settlement Position Planner
The Settlement calculator gives you a reasoned range. This works out everything else: the terms you need, the ones you can trade, the line you will not cross, and the conditions the final agreement must meet.
A figure is half a position. The rest is the reference, the announcement, the leaving date, the confidentiality you can live with, and knowing in advance what you can give up without losing what you need.
It also tells you plainly what a "protected conversation" does and does not protect. Most people assume it covers more than it does.
Privacy warning. Do not complete this tool on an employer-owned device.
Nothing you type here leaves this device. The tool runs entirely inside your browser. Nothing is sent to us or stored on any server, and nothing is written to this browser.
You can save your work. Save a file to your own device at any point and load it back later. The file is yours, and nobody else sees it unless you choose to share it.
Free, with nothing to sign up for and no email address required. About twenty minutes.
The tool in full
What it puts in front of you
Nothing here is held back for the tool. If you would rather work through it on paper, this is the whole of it.
- Thirteen terms beyond the figure: when the payment is made, notice and holiday pay paid separately, an agreed reference, the announcement, the leaving date, the disciplinary process closed, a contribution to your adviser's fee, confidentiality, mutual non-disparagement, benefits, property, restrictions on future work, and outplacement.
- Each term ranked: must have, would like, or can trade.
- Your walk-away figure, the terms that would make you say no whatever the figure, and your next step if there is no deal.
- What section 111A protects: pre-termination negotiations in an ordinary unfair dismissal claim, but not a case that the dismissal was automatically unfair, and not a discrimination claim. Employment Rights Act 1996, section 111A(1) to (4).
- Improper behaviour, which removes the protection, and the ten calendar days the Acas Code gives as a general rule to consider written terms. Acas Code of Practice on settlement agreements 2013, paragraphs 12, 13, 18 and 19.
- The six conditions a settlement agreement must meet, and who can act as the relevant independent adviser. Employment Rights Act 1996, section 203(3) to (3B).
- A confidentiality clause cannot stop a protected disclosure. Employment Rights Act 1996, section 43J.
Read alongside: Unfair and constructive dismissal and Discrimination and dispute resolution.
Primary sources. Employment Rights Act 1996, sections 43J, 111A and 203; Equality Act 2010, section 147; Acas Code of Practice on settlement agreements 2013, paragraphs 11 to 13, 18 and 19. Every reference to the ACAS Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures is to the version dated 11 March 2015, which is in force. The revised Code published in draft on 30 July 2026 is not in force and is not used.
What this is. General information about the standard the law and the Code set, for England and Wales. It is not an assessment of your case and it does not predict any outcome. Dates shown are indicative: confirm any deadline before you rely on it.
Confidential · Free 15-minute consultation
Don’t face your employer alone.
What’s said in the room matters. Tell us what has happened, and within one free call you will know where you stand, what it costs, and what happens next.