Getting paid when you leave a job
This advice applies to England. See advice for See advice for Northern Ireland, See advice for Scotland, See advice for Wales
If you haven’t been paid the right amount after leaving a job, you can take steps to get what you’re owed.
You need to act quickly - the deadline for taking action is usually 3 months less one day from when your employer should have paid you the money you’re owed. This is often the same date as your last pay date, but it’s a good idea to check the date your employer should have paid you what you’re owed, in case it was due on an earlier date.
On top of your basic pay, you could be owed:
holiday pay
sick pay - if you were off sick in your notice period
maternity, paternity, adoption or shared parental leave pay
redundancy pay
If you’re owed redundancy pay, your deadline for claiming is 6 months minus one day from the last day you were employed.
Your employer must pay you everything you’re owed in your last pay packet, even if you’ve been dismissed. If you owe them money they might be able to take it from your pay.
You'll usually get your last pay on the date you're normally paid. For example, if you leave at the start of the month but are usually paid at the end of the month, you'll probably have to wait until then to get your final pay. Check with your employer if you're not sure.
If you haven't left your job yet, check with your employer to make sure:
you’ll be paid everything you’re owed, including for holiday you’re entitled to
you know if you owe your employer any money and how you’ll pay it back
Check your payslip
Start by checking your final payslip. This will help you see how your final pay was worked out. Check whether you've been paid for:
the number of hours you worked
any holiday you were owed
any notice or redundancy pay you were expecting
any sick pay you were expecting
any maternity, paternity, adoption or parental leave pay you were expecting
overtime, commission or bonus you were expecting
You should also check if your employer has deducted money you weren't expecting.
If you’re an employee or a worker, you have a legal right to a payslip to show how your pay has been worked out. If you get paid per hour, your payslip has to show how many hours you’ve worked.
If you haven’t got a payslip or your payslip doesn't show how your pay has been worked out, ask your employer to put this right. You can check if you’re an employee or check if you're a worker on GOV.UK.
Talk to your employer
If you think your final pay is wrong, try speaking informally to your former employer. If you can't get through on the phone, you could try emailing, writing a letter or phoning your old workplace's main telephone number. You could try speaking to the human resources or payroll department, if there is one.
Ask them to explain anything you don’t understand on your payslip, or why you haven’t been paid.
If you don't agree with your employer's explanation, explain what you think the correct amount is and ask them to pay the money you're owed as soon as possible.
Common issues
You've worked more hours than you've been paid for
If you’re paid by the hour, check if you’ve been paid for the number of hours you’ve worked in the time period your payslip covers.
Next steps
If you’ve been paid for the wrong number of hours, get evidence of the hours you’ve worked. You could use things like:
copies of old rotas
clocking-in records
emails from your employer confirming your shifts
This will help you challenge your former employer to get the money you’re owed.
You’re still owed holiday pay
If you leave part-way through the year, you might not have taken all the holiday you’re entitled to.
Your employer has to pay you for any holiday you’re legally entitled to but haven’t taken. This is called pay in lieu of holiday. You can use the holiday entitlement calculator on GOV.UK to work out how much holiday you’re legally entitled to.
Check your employment contract to see if you’re entitled to more, eg it might say something like “Your basic annual leave entitlement is 20 days. You’re also entitled to 8 paid bank holidays.”
Your contract should say what happens to any contractual holiday you’ve built up but haven’t taken. You’re only entitled to be paid for it if your contract says so. If it doesn’t say anything, you’re unlikely to be paid. You could ask your employer if you can take the holiday as days off during your notice period.
Next steps
If you’re still owed holiday pay, get together any evidence that will support what you’re saying. You could use:
a print-out of your results from the holiday entitlement calculator
a copy of your contract saying how much holiday you’re entitled to
a list showing the holiday you've already taken
This will help you challenge your employer to get the money you’re owed.
You haven’t been paid redundancy pay
If you’ve been made redundant, you'll usually be entitled to redundancy pay if you've worked for your employer for at least 2 years. You can check your entitlement to redundancy pay and what to do if you don't get it.
Your employer has deducted money from your pay
If you owe your employer money, they can usually only take it out of your final pay if your contract says they can. This could include money you owe for:
holiday you’ve taken but weren’t entitled to - you can use the holiday entitlement calculator on GOV.UK to check if this applies to you
contractual maternity pay, if you didn’t go back to work after getting extra maternity pay
fees for courses your employer paid for
loans from your employer
The only time your employer can take money without an agreement in your contract is for wages you were previously overpaid.
Next steps
Check your contract to see what it says about paying your former employer back. If it doesn’t say your employer can deduct money from your pay, they’re not allowed to.
If you think they've taken money wrongly, you can take steps to get it back.
You haven't been paid sick pay
Check what you can do if your employer refuses to give you sick pay.
If you’re sick during your notice period, you might be entitled to sick pay or your normal pay.
Working out how much you should have been paid can be complicated. It's a good idea to talk to an adviser.
You haven't been paid maternity, paternity, adoption or shared parental leave pay
Your employer has gone out of business
It can be difficult to get money you're owed if your employer goes out of business. Your options depend on how they've gone out of business.
If your employer has just stopped trading, you can take steps to get some of the money you're owed.
If they've gone out of business, which could be called bankruptcy, administration or liquidation, you can claim some of the money from the government. You might not get it all back - there's a limit to how much you can claim.
You might be contacted by the person in charge of sorting out money the business still owes. They're called an 'insolvency practitioner'. They'll help you claim from the government and will add you to the list of people the business owes money to. However, you still might not get everything you're owed.
You can check what steps to take to claim money your employer owes you on GOV.UK.
If talking to your employer doesn't work
If you haven't left your job yet, you could raise a grievance. This is a way of formally raising a problem at work - your employer can't ignore it.
Check if your employer has got a grievance procedure for you to follow - you might find details in your staff handbook or intranet.
If your employer doesn't have a grievance procedure or you've already left your job, try writing them a letter.
It should include:
the date you left
how much you think they owe you and how you've worked it out
when you expect to be paid
copies of any evidence you've got to back up your argument
You might be able to get help from a trade union or other organisations. They could negotiate for you or go to meetings with you. This could give you a greater chance of success.
You can read more about raising a grievance.
If you can't contact your former employer
If your employer has stopped trading or moved, you can try these methods to find them:
search for their details on the Companies House website, if it was a registered limited company
search for them online
contact the trading standards department of your local authority
visit your old workplace to see if there's a notice saying the firm has moved
contact the landlord or estate agent of your old workplace
Get help from Acas and early conciliation
If writing to your employer doesn't solve the problem, you can contact Acas. It provides free independent support for employment disputes.
Get in touch with Acas as soon as you can - the deadline is 3 months minus a day from when your employer should have paid you.
They'll see if your employer will agree to a process called early conciliation - this means they'll help you talk to your former employer and try to resolve the dispute informally.
You can apply for early conciliation on the Acas website and read more about using early conciliation.
Take legal action
If you don't reach an agreement through Acas early conciliation, you can make a claim to an employment tribunal. You need to have tried early conciliation before you can go to a tribunal. Acas will give you a certificate that you need before you can start a tribunal claim.
If it's more than 1 month since the date on the Acas certificate you might be out of time for a tribunal claim - but you might be able to sue your employer in the courts instead.
You should get advice from your nearest Citizens Advice about your options.
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