(Image: AP/Jeremy Selwyn/Pool Photo)

It was during the St Giles’ Cathedral service for the departed queen that the news was dumped on dozens of Clarence House staff: the workforce, some of whom had worked for Charles for decades, were facing potential redundancy.

The queen’s staff, some of whom served her for more than 50 years, will face similar fears for their employment once Charles heads for Buckingham Palace.

It got us thinking: what kind of payout would you get for decades of royal service?

It’s hard to say exactly — the “rewards and benefits” section of the “work for the royal household” website goes into pay, leave and, oh hey, a complimentary lunch, as well as a pension, but nothing specific about what happens if they make your role redundant.

The minimum pay that applies for all employees in the UK is worked out in the following way. Employees get:

  • 1.5 weeks’ pay for each full year of employment after their 41st birthday
  • A week’s pay for each full year of employment after their 22nd birthday
  • Half a week’s pay for each full year of employment up to their 22nd birthday.

Length of service is capped at 20 years, and pay is capped at £571 a week, so Sir Edward Young, who is 55 and has been the queen’s private secretary since 2017, would be looking at a seemingly modest £4282 if let go (a bit of a drop on his reported salary of £146,000 a year).

As it turns out, the BBC reports that the palace is planning to soften the blow with unspecified “enhanced” redundancy offers.

One thing in the royal staffers’ favour is that they’re organised. Back in 1946, they joined up with the Civil Servants Union (between this and the creation of the National Health Service two years later, post-World War II Britain was a very different place). The CSU has now morphed into the Public and Commercial Services Union, which called the announcement “nothing short of heartless”.