When must my final pay be paid?

If your final pay is missing or short, you still have the right to wages you earned and holiday you built up. Today, save your rota, payslips and contract, check your next normal payday, and write to payroll asking for an itemised breakdown. A deduction is not lawful just because your manager says so. The tribunal clock can start from the payday, not the day you leave.

When should the money arrive?

If your usual payday is the last working day of the month and your job ends halfway through it, expect the outstanding wages at the end of that month. That is Acas’s guidance on final pay. Your contract may promise earlier payment. No UK-wide statute says the employer has seven days after resignation or dismissal to pay you.

Regulation 14 of the Working Time Regulations 1998 uses your termination date to calculate payment for untaken statutory leave. It does not say the money has to reach you on that date. Holiday pay will normally be part of the final payroll payment. If it is missing when due, ask why.

What belongs in the final payment?

You are owed wages for work up to your last day, including earned overtime, commission and any bonus payable under its terms. Add accrued untaken statutory holiday, eligible sick pay and other contractual sums. Notice and statutory redundancy pay depend on how employment ended. Expenses may also be owed, but are not “wages” for an unlawful-deductions claim. Keeping earned wages without lawful basis is wage theft. That is our verdict, not a separate legal label.

Section 27 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 includes holiday pay, commission and statutory sick pay in “wages” but expressly excludes redundancy payments and expenses. This affects which claim route you choose. It does not make the excluded sums optional. Your final payslip must still account for the money you are owed.

How much holiday pay is owed?

In Great Britain, a worker normally gets 5.6 weeks of statutory annual leave each year: 28 days for someone working five days a week. Bank holidays can form part of those 28 days. When the job ends during the leave year, compare the fraction of the year elapsed with the leave already taken under regulation 14. Pay for untaken statutory leave is owed even if you resign or are dismissed for gross misconduct. Carried-over statutory leave may also be payable.

For extra contractual leave, check the contract for what happens to it on departure. For irregular-hours and part-year workers, the 12.07% accrual method applies to leave years beginning on or after 1 April 2024. Do not apply it automatically to a regular five-day salary. Since 6 April 2026, employers must keep adequate annual-leave records for six years under the 2026 commencement regulations.

If you took more holiday than you had built up, your employer cannot automatically recover it. Regulation 14(4) requires a relevant agreement, and Acas says the arrangement must be in the contract or agreed in writing beforehand. Our holiday pay guide explains the wider calculation.

What happens to notice pay?

If you work your notice, you keep being paid. Garden leave also keeps you employed and paid. If the employer ends the job immediately and pays in lieu of notice, that payment is normally taxable earnings, not part of a tax-free redundancy allowance. If part of an enhanced severance package replaces notice not worked, post-employment notice pay rules can make that part taxable too.

For employees, section 86 of the 1996 Act sets the employer’s minimum notice: one week after a month’s service, then one week for each complete year from two years, up to 12 weeks. An employee who has worked a month normally gives at least one week. The contract may require more. There are exceptions to the statutory guarantee of normal pay during notice where contractual notice is at least a week longer than the statutory minimum. See our notice guide and garden leave guide.

Can the employer dock the final payslip?

Section 13 of the 1996 Act allows deductions required by law, authorised by a contractual term notified to you in writing beforehand, or agreed by you in writing beforehand. Tax and National Insurance are deductions required by law. Training fees, missing equipment and a charge for leaving without notice need their own valid basis. Ask to see the wording and the calculation. “It seems reasonable” is not, by itself, legal authority.

For shop workers, authorised deductions for till shortages or stock deficiencies are generally limited to 10% of gross pay on each payday. That percentage cap does not restrict an otherwise lawful deduction from the final instalment. The need for authorisation does not disappear. Whether a deduction can push your pay below the minimum wage depends on its reason and the pay reference period.

Check deductions against your job: unpaid travel between care visits; a kitchen porter’s or cleaner’s uniform; a retail till shortage; warehouse or delivery equipment. NHS support staff can compare paid hours and overtime with their rota. None is automatically lawful because it appears on your final payslip. Ask for evidence of authority and the calculation. Employer-benefit deductions can also reduce minimum-wage pay.

Redundancy pay and the £30,000 tax rule

A redundancy dismissal may add statutory redundancy pay. You must normally be an employee with at least two years’ continuous service. Count half a week’s pay for each full year worked under 22, one week at ages 22-40, and one-and-a-half weeks at 41 or over; count up to 20 years. In Great Britain, for redundancies from 6 April 2026, a week’s pay is capped at £751 and the statutory maximum is £22,530. You generally have six months after your job ends to apply for statutory redundancy pay. Northern Ireland’s weekly cap is different.

Salary, holiday pay, bonuses and notice-equivalent payments are taxed as earnings. Statutory redundancy and genuinely additional termination awards together usually qualify for a combined £30,000 Income Tax exemption. Tax is due on the excess, with employer Class 1A National Insurance on the amount above that threshold. The label “severance” does not turn ordinary wages or notice pay tax-free. For the calculations, see redundancy pay and severance packages.

Dismissal, death or an insolvent employer

Dismissal for gross misconduct normally removes the right to notice pay; it does not wipe out wages earned or untaken statutory holiday. A dismissal for misconduct is not a redundancy dismissal. If an employee dies, the employer usually makes outstanding payments to the estate’s executor or personal representative. HMRC instructs the employer to report the date of death on payroll, use the existing tax code and National Insurance category X, and issue no P45.

If the employer is insolvent, eligible employees can seek government payments instead of waiting for the company to pay. The Redundancy Payments Service rules cover up to eight weeks’ wage arrears, up to six weeks’ eligible holiday pay, statutory notice pay and statutory redundancy pay, subject to conditions and weekly caps. For Great Britain the relevant weekly cap is £751 for redundancies from 6 April 2026. Money above a cap may remain a claim against the insolvent employer.

Do status and location change the answer?

Genuinely self-employed people rely chiefly on their contract for payment and remedies. A label on a contract does not settle employment status. Agency workers should identify who pays them and check whether equal-treatment rights apply after 12 weeks in the same role. We explain these rules in our guides to employment status and agency work.

Great Britain’s main wage and holiday rules apply in Scotland as well as England and Wales. Scottish contract claims go to the sheriff court and generally face five-year prescription, not the six-year period commonly applicable to contract claims in England and Wales. Northern Ireland has separate employment legislation. Its weekly redundancy-pay cap from 6 April 2026 is £783, and its tribunal wage-claim limit remains generally three months less one day. The day-one statutory sick pay reform applies there too. Conciliation is through the Labour Relations Agency, rather than Acas. See Northern Ireland’s employment-law differences.

What if the payment is late or short?

First ask for an itemised final payslip and a written breakdown. Section 8 of the 1996 Act requires an itemised statement at or before payment. It must show gross and net pay and deductions and their purposes, but the Act does not expressly require every wage component to have its own line. Employers should still explain how they worked out the final amount. When a worker leaves, the employer must also provide a P45, except in the case of an employee’s death, as explained above.

1. Work out what is missing. After your shift, compare your rota or hours app with the payslip. Add wages, overtime, commission and holiday; note each due date.
2. Write to payroll today. List missing sums. Ask for an itemised payslip, written calculation and authority for each deduction. Save the reply, rota, payslips and contract.
3. Report breaches. If unpaid hours or deductions may breach minimum wage, complain to HMRC. Report labour exploitation in a GLAA-regulated sector to GLAA, safety breaches to HSE, and discrimination to EHRC. These do not replace a tribunal claim.
4. Get support. Contact Acas (Great Britain) or the Labour Relations Agency (Northern Ireland) before most claims. Ask Citizens Advice or a law centre. Contact your union: UNISON (care and health), Unite (hospitality and logistics), USDAW (retail), GMB (warehousing, delivery and cleaning). An internal grievance does not stop the clock.
5. Choose the claim and protect the deadline. Missing wages and holiday may be unlawful deductions; redundancy pay and expenses need another legal basis. Contract claims can sometimes go to court. Get advice before choosing.

For example, if your pay is short on 1 October 2026, you normally need to notify Acas by 31 March 2027, not 1 April. A contractual claim in the county court of England and Wales generally has six years; in Scotland check the five-year rule. These are different causes of action, not permission to let a tribunal deadline pass. See how tribunal claims work.

Which changes are already in force?

Since 6 April 2026, statutory sick pay has no waiting days or lower earnings limit: eligible employees receive the lower of £123.25 a week or 80% of average weekly earnings, pro-rated by qualifying days. Any SSP earned but unpaid belongs in the final calculation. Holiday records must now be retained for six years. The new tribunal limits took effect on 1 October 2026 subject to transitional rules.

The unfair-dismissal qualifying period is still generally two years in Great Britain on this article’s review date. A reduction to six months, with removal of the ordinary compensatory-award cap, is scheduled for dismissals whose effective termination date falls on or after 1 January 2027. It does not change the obligation to pay earned wages now, and is not an extension of the two-year service rule for statutory redundancy.