Methodology & sources

This site has one editorial rule: no statutory figure appears anywhere unless it was read from a primary source, and that source is cited on the page that uses it. This page documents the process.

Where every number comes from

• Statutory rates and caps — GOV.UK guidance pages and HMRC's annual Rates and thresholds for employers publication. Where a guide page and the HMRC table disagree (it happens shortly after April upratings), the HMRC table wins and we say so.
• NHS occupational schemes — the NHS Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook (Agenda for Change), read from the current edition published by NHS Employers, with section numbers quoted (§13 leave, §14 sick pay, §15 parents, §16 redundancy).
• Teachers' occupational maternity scheme — the Burgundy Book (Conditions of Service for School Teachers in England and Wales), via the LGA and NEU's published texts.
• Formulas — the underlying legislation (Employment Rights Act 1996, Working Time Regulations 1998, and the 2023–25 family-rights Acts) as reflected in official guidance.

The rules we hold ourselves to

1. Never guess. If a value can't be verified against a source, the page says “unverified” rather than showing a plausible number.
2. Show the working. Calculators print the calculation steps, so you can check the arithmetic against the cited rule yourself.
3. Date everything. Every page shows when its figures were last checked (currently 3 July 2026 for the 2026/27 figures).
4. Statutory floor vs contract. We calculate legal minimums and named national schemes. Your contract can be better; it can't be worse.

How updates happen

UK statutory rates change on 6 April each year (announced the preceding November–January), and the Employment Rights Act programme is adding new rules through 2026–27. Our monitoring system checks the source pages daily for figure-level changes and flags any drift to a human editor — changes are reviewed and published by a person, never automatically. The tax-year rollover is prepared in advance from the government's published tables and switched on 6 April.

What this site is not

Not legal advice, and not a tax calculator. The figures are gross statutory entitlements; personal tax outcomes belong to payroll and our sister site. For disputes, Acas (0300 123 1100) provides free, impartial help, and early conciliation is the required first step before a tribunal claim.

Primary sources used across the site

• HMRC — Rates and thresholds for employers 2026 to 2027
• GOV.UK — Maternity pay and leave
• GOV.UK — Maternity Allowance
• GOV.UK — Statutory Sick Pay
• GOV.UK — Redundancy: your rights (redundancy pay)
• nidirect — Redundancy pay (Northern Ireland)
• GOV.UK — Redundancy: notice periods
• GOV.UK — Handing in your notice
• GOV.UK — Holiday entitlement
• GOV.UK — Paternity pay and leave
• GOV.UK — Shared Parental Leave and Pay
• GOV.UK — Adoption pay and leave
• GOV.UK — Carer's leave
• GOV.UK — Neonatal care leave and pay
• GOV.UK — Parental bereavement leave and pay
• GOV.UK — Employee rights when on leave
• GOV.UK — Flexible working
• Acas — Statutory flexible working requests
• NHS Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook (Agenda for Change)
• Burgundy Book maternity scheme (NEU summary of the national agreement)
• LGA — Conditions of service for school teachers (Burgundy Book)

Spotted an error or a stale figure? Tell us — corrections ship fast, and "rate or figure out of date" is a first-class category on the contact form. Pages are maintained by the Work Entitlements team.