How much holiday pay are you owed?

Yes. Any holiday you have built up but not taken by your last day must be paid to you, and this is a legal right your employer cannot opt out of. It is paid as part of your final pay, whether you resign, are dismissed or are made redundant. Unlike your annual allowance during employment, accrued holiday on termination cannot be lost through a use-it-or-lose-it policy.

Your employer can only reclaim over-taken holiday from your final pay if your contract explicitly says so, usually in a clause about deductions on termination. Without that written term, a deduction from your wages is unlawful. Check your contract and your final payslip carefully, and raise it in writing if money has been taken without a contractual basis.

Yes. Accrued holiday pay is treated as normal earnings, so it is subject to income tax and National Insurance in the usual way. It does not fall within the £30,000 tax-free allowance that can apply to genuine redundancy payments, because it is pay for work-related entitlement rather than compensation for loss of your job. Expect it to appear on your final payslip with tax already deducted.

No. The £30,000 exemption applies to genuine redundancy payments. Holiday pay is treated as normal earnings and is taxed through PAYE with income tax and National Insurance deducted. The same is true of notice pay and any bonus in your final payment.

Generally yes. An employer can require you to take holiday at specific times by giving notice of at least twice the length of the holiday, so two days' notice for one day off, and this can be done during your notice period. Many employers do this to reduce the accrued holiday they have to pay out. Your contract may set out a different procedure, so check it.

Yes. You remain employed throughout your notice period, so holiday continues to accrue right up to your last day of employment. This applies whether you are working your notice or on garden leave. If you are paid in lieu of notice instead, your employment usually ends immediately, so accrual stops on that earlier date.

Accrued holiday must be paid on termination and is completely separate from your redundancy payment. It is not a bargaining chip and should not be presented as part of a settlement offer, because you are legally entitled to it regardless. If a settlement figure appears to fold in your holiday pay, that is worth querying before you sign anything.

They can. The statutory minimum in the UK is 5.6 weeks, which is 28 days for someone working five days a week, and an employer is allowed to count the eight bank holidays within that 28. So you might get 20 days plus bank holidays, or 28 days with bank holidays counted separately if your employer is more generous. Check your contract, then set the entitlement figure in the calculator to match.

Unpaid accrued holiday is an unlawful deduction from wages, and you can bring a claim in the employment tribunal. The deadline is generally three months minus one day from the date the payment should have been made, and you must start ACAS Early Conciliation first. Raise it in writing with your employer as a first step, and if that fails it is worth speaking to an employment solicitor. Find an employment solicitor.