accept redundancy or accept same job with different title with reduced benefits

I'm afraid the answer is - yes, it happens. And - it could be worse. Cold comfort I know. But there is a worse scenario, which involves the employer enforcing the change on you and giving you no choice. It used to be the case that, once upon a time, if the terms of another job - or even the same job - were less, then an employer couldn't force you to do it. However, for a long time now, tribunals have been accepting that employers need to change to remain competitive, and that is likely to involve reducing terms. As a result, on a financial basis, changes that result in up to a 10% financial loss - and sometimes a lot more- have been considered legally fair. The rationale being that that is better than unemployment, and if you don't like it you can get another job.

So there is every chance that if this went to a tribunal then it could be deemed lawful, and so nobody could tell you that there is a slam dunk case. As a result, your options are limited - if you want to avoid risk you must accept it or take the redundancy.

There is a health warning on the redundancy situation too- if you decide on redundancy be very, very sure that the employer is willing to accept that you don't want any of the alternative jobs first. If you don't apply it is possible that the employer could argue them to be suitable alternatives and refuse to pay redundancy because you refused to apply. That would leave you having to go to a tribunal to try to get your redundancy money - and the same risk applies that the tribunal might consider that your refusal to apply was unreasonable.

I would have to be honest - if you are not in a union, then if you intend to challenge this I agree with your old boss, and would say you need legal advice first. I wish I could tell you they can't do this, but in all honesty I see employers do this almost every day now.