Notice period calculator
Work out the minimum notice owed in both directions: the notice your employer must give you, the notice you must give to resign, and the date your employment actually ends.
Notice period calculator
Statutory minimums under the Employment Rights Act 1996 · GOV.UK notice periods
How it works
The statutory minimum your employer must give you is set by the Employment Rights Act 1996. Once you have been employed for a month, you are entitled to at least one week’s notice. From two complete years of service you get one week for every full year, up to a maximum of twelve weeks at twelve years. Only complete years count: at four years and eleven months the statutory figure is still four weeks.
The notice you must give to resign is simpler: at least one week, again once you have passed a month’s service. Before that point there is no statutory minimum in either direction, although your contract may still specify notice and a “reasonable” period can be implied.
Your contract matters. If it promises more than the statutory floor, say a month’s notice or “three months on either side”, the longer contractual period applies. Enter it above and the calculator takes the larger of the two. An employer can promise less notice than statute on paper, but the statutory minimum still wins in law.
Add the date notice is given and the calculator shows your last day of employment, counting forward the required number of weeks. Notice usually runs from the start of the day after it is given, which is how the date is computed. Your employer may still ask you to leave immediately with payment in lieu of notice, or put you on garden leave. The end date is what matters for pay either way.
Read the full guide: notice periods explained, or see how notice works in a dismissal at unfair dismissal claims. The statutory rules are on GOV.UK’s redundancy notice periods and handing in your notice pages.