Well the 5 year share save for BT due next year will return about £60k (tax free) and I know there will be a lot of people taking redundancy after that.

That is good money, pays for 1-4 years of good living. Hard put to call that "FU money", though.

(Maybe it is in the UK with its high level of basic social services?)

It is when you have enough years in and with BT's redundancy terms you can max out your pension (ie if you worked any longer you would not get any more pension) get a huge tax free bung plus £60k ss on top.