Loss of notice pay calculator: what to check first

If your job is ending and the notice looks short, or you have been told you will be paid instead of working it, you need two numbers: how many weeks, and what a week’s pay is. A loss of notice pay calculator turns those into a figure you can check against your letter or payslip.

Start here: Second Wind’s free notice pay calculator.

This is information, not legal advice. For your own situation, contact Acas on 0300 123 1100 or Citizens Advice.

What you are trying to work out

Loss of notice pay usually means one of these:

• Your job ended without you working the notice you expected, and you want a figure for the missing weeks
• You were offered pay in lieu of notice and want to check it
• You are being made redundant and need notice pay sitting next to redundancy pay, not mixed into it

A notice pay calculator should answer the employment-rights question: what pay the notice period points to, on GOV.UK and Acas rules, and on your contract if it is more generous. That is a different job from a post employment notice pay calculator, which follows HMRC tax rules.

Statutory notice pay: the legal minimum weeks

Your contract can give you more notice than the law. It cannot give you less than the statutory minimum once you have a month’s continuous service.

The Employment Rights Act 1996 sets the minimum an employer must give (section 86). GOV.UK notice periods publishes the same bands. Acas explains them in plain English.

Continuous employment	Minimum notice from your employer
Less than 1 month	No statutory notice
1 month up to 2 years	1 week
2 years up to 12 years	1 week per complete year
12 years or more	12 weeks

A statutory notice pay calculator should start with those weeks, then apply your week’s pay. If your contract says three months, the tool should let you use three months, not force you down to the 12-week statutory ceiling.

Write down your start date, the notice in your contract, the leaving date, and whether you will work notice or take a lump sum. Those facts change the result more than any rounding inside a tool.

Pay in lieu of notice

Pay in lieu of notice (PILON) is money instead of you working the notice. GOV.UK states that your employer can only do this if it is in your contract, or you agree to it (pay in lieu of notice).

A lieu of notice pay calculator needs to know how long the notice is (the longer of statutory and contractual), whether you will work it or be paid in lieu, and what counts as a week’s pay. Garden leave is still employment and normal pay, not a lump sum in lieu.

If you were not paid for notice you did not work, the calculator still puts a figure on the weeks so you can raise it with your employer, with a clear working.

If you wanted this on GOV.UK

GOV.UK is the right place for the rules. It sets out notice, redundancy notice and when PILON is allowed. It also runs an official statutory redundancy pay calculator.

It does not replace a working for your own salary. Use GOV.UK to confirm the weeks and the conditions, then put your rate through a notice pay calculator so you can see the multiplication, not only a total. Treat GOV.UK as the rulebook and the calculator as the arithmetic. You need both.

Post-employment notice pay is a tax figure

A post employment notice pay calculator is doing HMRC’s calculation, not Acas’s.

Post-employment notice pay (PENP) helps decide how much of a termination payment is treated as taxable earnings. HMRC explains when you need to work it out in Checking if you need to work out Post Employment Notice Pay.

Keep the two questions apart:

• Employment notice pay: what you should receive for notice you did not work
• PENP: how much of a termination payment is subject to income tax and National Insurance

Use a rights calculator for the weeks you should be paid. Use HMRC for tax on a termination payment, with payroll or a tax adviser if you need it.

Redundancy pay and notice pay are separate

When the role is redundant, you can be looking at more than one payment. GOV.UK covers notice if you are redundant. You still get statutory or contractual notice, or PILON. Statutory redundancy pay is extra if you qualify. It has its own rules and its own official calculator.

Do not fold redundancy weeks into notice weeks. Mixing them understates one pot and overstates the other.

Unused holiday is a third figure. GOV.UK explains holiday entitlement, including pay when you leave, on holiday entitlement. Keep holiday out of the notice box.

If you also need the redundancy pay side, use Second Wind’s redundancy pay calculator next to the notice figures, not instead of them.

What to look for before you trust a result

1. Country. These notice rules are for England, Scotland and Wales. Northern Ireland is different.
2. Sources on the screen. It should cite GOV.UK, Acas or the Employment Rights Act, with a link you can open.
3. Working shown. You should see the weeks, the week’s pay and the multiplication. A single unexplained total is hard to take to HR.
4. Statutory and contractual. A decent statutory notice pay calculator still lets you type a longer contractual period.
5. PILON versus worked notice. The weeks may match. The leaving date, benefits and tax may not.
6. No promise of an outcome. A calculator cannot say what a tribunal would do. If the numbers do not match, Acas or Citizens Advice can talk through the next step.
7. No subscription for the figure. You should be able to check notice pay without a rolling fee. Second Wind’s notice tools are free to use.

Mistakes that throw the figure out

• Counting a part year as a full year for statutory notice after two years (the statute uses complete years, up to 12 weeks)
• Ignoring contractual notice that is longer than 12 weeks
• Dropping redundancy pay into the notice line
• Treating PENP as the amount you should be paid, rather than a tax measure
• Assuming PILON is always allowed when it is not in the contract and you have not agreed

Check the figure, then decide the next step

Work the weeks from GOV.UK first. Then put your pay through a calculator that shows how it got the number.

Second Wind’s notice pay calculator is for people in the UK who are facing redundancy or have just been made redundant. It is free. We show the working. It is information, not legal advice.

If the result is higher than what you have been offered, raise it in writing with your employer. Speak to Acas on 0300 123 1100 before you sign anything. If you need to talk to someone now, Samaritans are free on 116 123.

When you are ready, check your notice pay with the notice pay calculator.