Notice Period & PILON

Notice rules are set out in section 86 of the Employment Rights Act 1996. The calculator works in complete months of continuous service so that short service still counts — statutory notice starts once you have one month's service, not one year's.

• Employer to employee (s.86(1)): nothing under 1 month's service; 1 week from 1 month up to 2 years; then 1 week per complete year of service; capped at 12 weeks from 12 years' service onwards.
• Employee to employer (s.86(2)): at least 1 week once you have 1 month's service, however long you have worked. Only your contract can require more.
• Contract vs statute: the calculator takes the higher of the statutory minimum and the contractual notice you enter. The statutory figures are floors, not alternatives — a contract clause offering less than s.86 is simply overridden.

PILON (payment in lieu of notice) is the cash equivalent of the notice period, paid up-front instead of being worked: the calculator multiplies the applicable notice weeks by your gross weekly pay. Since 6 April 2018 PILON is fully taxable as earnings (income tax and National Insurance, under the post-employment notice pay rules) regardless of any £30,000 redundancy exemption — the £30k tax-free allowance does not extend to PILON.

Assumptions and limits: the PILON figure is gross — the calculator does not estimate tax or NI deductions, and it assumes a flat week's pay rather than averaging variable earnings. It does not cover summary dismissal for gross misconduct (where no notice is due), garden leave, the expiry of a fixed-term contract, or the separate s.87–91 right to be paid during statutory notice while off sick or on leave. If your contract states notice in months, convert before entering it (the field help suggests 4 weeks per month, which slightly understates a calendar month).