How to Claim Unpaid Wages, Holiday Pay or Notice Pay from an Employer (2026/27)

This guide is general information, not advice.

This guide is for employees and workers who have been paid less than they are owed: wages or overtime that never arrived, holiday pay missing from a final payslip, or notice pay that was not paid when the job ended. It covers the civil route, where you recover the money yourself. If the problem is pay below the legal minimum wage, there is a separate enforcement route through HMRC, and our guide to reporting an employer for underpaying the minimum wage is the better starting point.

At the end you will have a written demand, an Acas early conciliation certificate if talks fail, and a filed employment tribunal claim, or an application to the government if your employer is insolvent. The tribunal process below is for England, Wales and Scotland; GOV.UK says there is a different way to claim in Northern Ireland.

Before you start

• The dates you should have been paid. The time limit runs from them.
• Payslips, contract or written statement, timesheets and rotas. Acas lists these as the evidence to share (Acas: raising an issue with your employer).
• Your own calculation of what you are owed, gross and net.
• Your employer’s legal name and address. GOV.UK says you can find it in your job offer letter, contract or payslips.
• Holiday records: leave year, days taken and days accrued. Our holiday pay guide explains how the pay is worked out.
• Length of service, if the claim is for notice pay.

Step-by-step

1. Work out what kind of money it is. A short payment of wages counts as a deduction in law: section 13(3) of the Employment Rights Act 1996 treats a shortfall against the wages “properly payable” as a deduction (section 13(4) excludes a shortfall caused by an error in computing gross wages), and section 13(1) allows one only if a statutory provision or your contract authorises it or you agreed in writing beforehand. That is the basis of an unlawful deduction claim. Two other kinds of money:

   • Holiday pay on leaving. GOV.UK says employers must pay for untaken statutory leave when you leave, “even if the worker is dismissed for gross misconduct” (GOV.UK: taking holiday before leaving a job).
   • Notice pay. Acas gives the statutory minimum notice for an employee: 1 week after 1 month’s service, 1 week per full year from 2 to 12 years, and 12 weeks after 12 years or more; your contract can give more but not less. Acas says that if you did not get the correct notice you might be able to claim wrongful dismissal at an employment tribunal, the county court in England and Wales, or the sheriff court in Scotland (Acas: notice when being dismissed).

2. Put it to your employer in writing. Acas suggests explaining how much you think you are owed and why, showing your calculations, attaching evidence, and asking for a reply within a set time, “for example, within 7 days, or before your next pay day”. If you raise it in conversation, confirm it by email so there is a record.

3. Raise a formal grievance if that fails. Acas describes a grievance as a formal complaint to your employer. It does not pause anything: Acas’s time limits page says going through grievance or appeal procedures “does not change your time limit”. Keep an eye on the date.

4. Notify Acas. You must do this before a tribunal claim. Use the online form on Acas’s notify page, or call the early conciliation team on 0300 123 1122, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. Once submitted, the form cannot be changed, so check it first. Acas then offers early conciliation, which it says “can last up to 12 weeks”, and warns that it “can take around 9 weeks” to start. Taking part is voluntary for both sides.

5. Settle, or take the certificate. If you reach agreement, Acas writes it up as a COT3, which is legally binding, and your case ends there. If your employer declines or talks fail, Acas issues a certificate with a number on it (Acas: how the process works).

6. File form ET1. Claim online with the names and addresses of every claimant and respondent and your Acas certificate numbers, or download the ET1 and post it to the central office for England and Wales or for Scotland, whose addresses are on the same page. GOV.UK says: “You do not have to pay a fee to make a claim to an employment tribunal.” You could still face witness expenses, or the respondent’s costs if the tribunal decides you acted unreasonably.

7. If your employer is insolvent, apply to the government instead. The insolvency practitioner or official receiver gives you a CN case reference; you apply online for unpaid wages, holiday pay and redundancy pay within 6 months of being dismissed. Statutory notice pay is a second claim using an LN reference, which GOV.UK says is sent after your notice period would have ended, “usually no more than 12 weeks after you’re dismissed”. The Redundancy Payments Service is on 0330 331 0020.

8. Or use the county court. GOV.UK’s court claim for money route is for money owed by a person or business in England and Wales, with separate processes in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Acas names the county court and sheriff court as options for a notice pay claim. Court claims have their own fees, set out on that GOV.UK guide. A notice pay claim in the tribunal is a breach-of-contract claim: its clock runs from the date your employment ended, not from a payday, and its limit is changing on a separate timetable (later in Scotland than in England and Wales), so check Acas’s time limits page for the date that applies to you.

Deadlines and what happens next

• Time limit for unpaid wages. Acas says 3 months minus 1 day from the date you should have been paid, or from the most recent one if it happened more than once. Its example: paid the wrong amount on 1 May, time limit ends at 11:59pm on 31 July.
• The October 2026 change. Acas says that “From 1 October 2026, the time limit for most claims will increase to 6 months minus 1 day”, and that this “only applies if your time limit starts on or after 1 October 2026”. A pay date on or before 30 September 2026 keeps the 3-month limit.
• Early conciliation pauses the clock, but only if you notified Acas within your time limit. After the certificate you have “at least 1 month from the date you received the certificate” to file.
• The 2-year backstop. Section 23(4A) of the Employment Rights Act 1996 stops a tribunal considering deductions from wages paid more than two years before the claim is presented. Acas says you can reach back that far if there was less than 3 months between each underpayment, or they were linked, “for example … caused by the same error”. Subsection (4B) disapplies the 2-year limit for the kinds of payment listed in section 27(1)(b) to (j).
• After you file. GOV.UK says the respondent usually has 28 days from getting your claim to reply, then the tribunal decides whether there will be a full hearing. You will have to share relevant documents, even unhelpful ones.
• If you win and are not paid. You can ask the Fair Work Agency to contact the employer, or ask a court to enforce the award, but not while the respondent has appealed or is about to; it has 42 days to appeal (GOV.UK: if you win your case).
• Insolvency payments. GOV.UK says it usually takes up to 6 weeks to get your payment, and you pay Income Tax and National Insurance on wages and holiday pay.

Common mistakes

• Waiting for the grievance outcome before notifying Acas. The time limit keeps running.
• Notifying Acas after the time limit. The pause only works if you notified in time.
• Leaving arrears to build for years. Only 2 years are recoverable in a deduction claim, and Acas’s conditions for reaching back are less than 3 months between underpayments or underpayments that are linked.
• Suing an insolvent employer. Claim through the Redundancy Payments Service with your CN number instead.
• Filing a minimum wage complaint and a tribunal claim at once. Our minimum wage guide explains that HMRC cannot take the complaint forward once tribunal action has begun.

Worked example: an insolvent employer

GOV.UK says the government pays up to 8 weeks of wages owed, and that payments for wages “are capped at £751 a week (£719 if you were made redundant before 6 April 2026)” (GOV.UK: what you can get). The £751 figure is set by the Employment Rights (Increase of Limits) Order 2026.

Say you were made redundant in September 2026 and are owed 10 weeks of wages at £900 a week gross. The cap limits each week to £751, and only 8 weeks are paid: 8 × £751 = £6,008 gross, taxed before it reaches you. The other 2 weeks, and the £149 a week above the cap, are not covered by this payment. Holiday pay (up to 6 weeks, from the 12 months before the insolvency) and statutory notice pay are claimed separately and carry the same weekly cap.

Related reading

• Holiday pay calculation 2026/27 - how much holiday pay you should have had.
• Statutory redundancy pay 2026/27 - the redundancy payment that often sits alongside these claims.
• How to report an employer paying below the minimum wage - the HMRC enforcement route.