Pay and employment
Guides
Plain-English answers on pay, holiday, notice, redundancy and sick pay — written to sit alongside the calculators, with every figure sourced from GOV.UK.
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Leaving a job
Redundancy pay: which parts are tax free and which are not?
The first £30,000 of genuine redundancy pay is free of income tax and National Insurance. Your notice pay and your untaken holiday are taxed in full, and most…
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Pay and tax
Salary sacrifice or a normal workplace pension: which leaves you better off?
Both cut your income tax by exactly the same amount. The difference is National Insurance, worth £180 a year on a £45,000 salary and less if you earn…
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Sick pay and rights
Unfair dismissal is not becoming a day-one right — here is what actually changes
The Employment Rights Act was widely reported as making unfair dismissal a day-one right. It was amended before it passed. The real qualifying period is six months, from…
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Sick pay and rights
Statutory Sick Pay now starts on day one: what changed in April 2026
Two long-standing rules were removed in April 2026 — the three waiting days and the lower earnings limit. If you last checked before then, what you know is…
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Leaving a job
How much notice does your employer have to give you?
Statutory notice is one week per year of service up to twelve. Your contract can improve on that but can never go below it — here is how…
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Holiday and time off
Do bank holidays count towards your holiday entitlement?
The answer that surprises people: your employer can count bank holidays as part of your 5.6 weeks, and does not have to give them as paid leave at…
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Pay and tax
Your first payslip looks wrong: emergency tax codes explained
A new job, a smaller payslip than you were promised, and a tax code ending in W1, M1 or X. Here is what happened, what it costs you,…