Twenty-one guides to the rules behind the calculators. Every statutory figure is checked against primary sources and dated.
Grouped by subject rather than by date, because the date a guide was written tells you nothing useful — what matters is when it was last checked.
Holiday and annual leave
How much holiday am I entitled to? The 5.6 weeks, the 28-day cap, part-year pro-rating, and the rules on carrying leave over. Start here if you work a fixed number of days each week.
Holiday entitlement for irregular hours and part-year workers The 12.07% accrual method, where the figure comes from, and why the classification question matters far more than the arithmetic.
Do bank holidays count as annual leave? There is no legal right to them. Why “28 days plus bank holidays” and “28 days including bank holidays” are eight days apart, and the specific problem they create for part-time staff.
Holiday entitlement in Northern Ireland What is settled, what is not, and why we will not pretend otherwise.
Redundancy
Working out average weekly pay for redundancy Which 12 weeks count when your pay varies, what goes into the average, and the cap that applies afterwards.
How your notice period can increase your redundancy pay Statutory notice counts towards continuous service. Crossing a work anniversary is worth a week’s pay — and crossing a birthday, counterintuitively, is usually worth nothing.
Is redundancy pay taxable? What the £30,000 exemption covers, what it does not, and why statutory and enhanced redundancy are treated differently.
Enhanced redundancy pay Where enhanced schemes come from, how they are usually structured, and what to check before signing a settlement agreement.
Notice periods
Statutory notice periods One week per year from your employer, one week flat from you. Where your contract overrides it and when no notice is owed at all.
Pay in lieu of notice Why all PILON is now taxed as earnings, how HMRC’s post-employment notice pay calculation works, and what it means for your termination date.
Pay and tax
UK tax codes explained 1257L, BR, D0, 0T, K codes, emergency codes and the S and C prefixes. Why yours might be wrong and how to get it corrected.
Scottish income tax Six bands instead of three, where the crossover with the rest of the UK actually falls, and the National Insurance overlap that produces a 50% marginal rate.
The 60% tax trap Why £100,000 to £125,140 is taxed at an effective 60% — 67.5% in Scotland — and what to do about it.
National Insurance category letters What A, B, C, H, M and V mean, why deductions are worked out per pay period, and why a bonus month costs you more.
Which student loan plan am I on? Plan 1, 2, 4, 5 and Postgraduate. Thresholds, write-off periods, and why paying it off early usually is not worth it.
Sick pay, family leave and minimum wage
Statutory sick pay: the April 2026 rules
Day-one payment, no earnings threshold, and 80% of average weekly earnings. Most guidance online still describes the old system.
Maternity and paternity pay
The uncapped first six weeks of SMP, how shared parental leave works, and the eight-week earnings window that catches people out.
Minimum wage: what counts
The rate on your contract is not what the law measures. The four ways employers breach it without meaning to.
Working days and bank holidays
England and Wales have 8, Scotland 9, Northern Ireland 10 — and Scotland does not observe Easter Monday.
Hours and overtime
Overtime pay rules There is no legal right to extra pay for overtime. What the minimum wage still guarantees, and when overtime must count towards your holiday pay.
Timesheet rounding rules When rounding clock-in times is lawful, when it is not, and how to check whether you are losing hours.
How these are written
Every guide leads with the answer, cites its sources, and carries the date the figures were last checked.
Where the law is genuinely unclear, the guide says so rather than picking an interpretation. Where another source is wrong, we say that too — with the arithmetic to show why.
More on how the figures are checked, and every source the site relies on.
Last reviewed 30 August 2026.