Holiday Carry-Over Calculator

How it works

Carry-over depends on the contract and statutory circumstances. The calculator first identifies the holiday not taken, then applies the contractual carry-over allowance and any additional protected carry-over entered.

Compliance

Almost all workers are legally entitled to 5.6 weeks' paid holiday each year. For a worker who normally works five days a week, this is normally 28 days. Bank holidays can be included within this statutory minimum, so the legal entitlement is not automatically 20 days plus bank holidays.

Employees should normally take their statutory holiday

Statutory holiday should normally be taken during the relevant leave year. Where there is no agreement allowing statutory holiday to be carried over, an employee who has been given a genuine opportunity to take their holiday, has been properly informed of the arrangements and simply chooses not to take it will normally lose the untaken statutory holiday at the end of the leave year, subject to any applicable legal carry-over rights or contractual arrangements.

Employers must make sure employees can take their holiday

Employers have a legal responsibility to make sure workers can take the holiday to which they are entitled. If an employee has requested holiday and the employer has unreasonably prevented them from taking it, or the employer has failed to allow or encourage the employee to take their holiday or failed to inform them that untaken holiday could be lost, statutory carry-over rights may arise.

Practical employer checks before treating holiday as lost

• Check the employee's contractual holiday entitlement and whether bank holidays are included.
• Check the employee's leave year and how much statutory holiday has been taken.
• Check whether the employee had a reasonable opportunity to request and take their holiday.
• Check whether any holiday requests were refused or cancelled and why.
• Check whether employees were reminded or otherwise encouraged to take outstanding holiday.
• Check whether sickness absence or statutory leave creates a separate carry-over right.