The UK HR & payroll glossary
Thirty terms every UK employer actually meets — P45 to TUPE — in plain English. Deliberately British: no 401(k)s, no W-2s.
P45
The form an employee receives when they leave a job, showing pay and tax so far in the tax year and their tax code. The new employer uses it to put them on the right code; without one, a starter checklist is used instead. Under RTI the leaving details also reach HMRC through the payroll submission.
P60
The end-of-year certificate every employee still employed on 5 April must receive by 31 May, summarising the year’s total pay and deductions. Needed for tax refunds, mortgage applications and Self Assessment.
P11D
The annual return reporting benefits in kind — company cars, private medical cover, interest-free loans — to HMRC, due by 6 July after the tax year, unless the benefits are taxed through payroll instead ("payrolling").
PAYE
Pay As You Earn — the system through which employers deduct Income Tax and National Insurance from wages before paying them, and account for the deductions to HMRC in real time.
RTI (Real Time Information)
The regime under which employers report pay and deductions to HMRC on or before every payday rather than once a year. Its two submission types are the FPS and the EPS.
FPS (Full Payment Submission)
The RTI submission sent with every pay run, carrying each employee’s pay, tax, NI and starter/leaver information. Due on or before payday.
EPS (Employer Payment Summary)
The monthly RTI submission used to recover statutory payments, claim the Employment Allowance, report the Apprenticeship Levy or declare a period with no payments. Due by the 19th of the following tax month.
Tax code
The code HMRC issues per employment that tells payroll how much tax-free pay to give — 1257L being the common code reflecting the standard Personal Allowance. Wrong codes are the single most common cause of payroll queries.
NI category letter
The letter (A, C, H, and others) that determines which National Insurance rates apply to an employee — driven by age, apprenticeship status and other factors. Category A covers most working-age employees.
Lower Earnings Limit (LEL)
The earnings level at which employees start building entitlement to contributory benefits like the State Pension, without yet paying NI. Several statutory payments historically referenced it as a qualifying threshold.
SSP (Statutory Sick Pay)
The legal minimum an employer must pay a sick employee, for up to 28 weeks. Reformed for 2026-27: paid from the first full working day, at the lower of the flat weekly rate or 80% of average weekly earnings — with no minimum-earnings threshold in the eligibility criteria.
SMP (Statutory Maternity Pay)
Thirty-nine weeks of pay for a qualifying employee on maternity leave: 90% of average earnings for six weeks, then the statutory weekly rate (or 90%, if lower) for thirty-three. Leave itself can run 52 weeks; the last 13 are unpaid.
SPP (Statutory Paternity Pay)
Up to two weeks of pay at the statutory weekly rate (or 90% of earnings if lower) for a qualifying partner following birth or adoption, taken within the first year.
ShPP (Shared Parental Pay)
Pay supporting Shared Parental Leave, which lets parents divide up to 50 weeks of leave and 37 weeks of pay between them, at the same statutory weekly rate as SPP.
SAP (Statutory Adoption Pay)
The adoption equivalent of SMP — 39 weeks, structured the same way, for the primary adopter.
Statutory redundancy pay
The legal minimum payout when a role is made redundant after two years’ service, based on age, length of service (capped at 20 years) and a capped week’s pay. The caps change every April.
Auto-enrolment
The duty on every UK employer to automatically enrol eligible staff into a workplace pension and contribute at least 3% of qualifying earnings (8% minimum in total), with re-enrolment and a re-declaration every three years.
Qualifying earnings
The band of earnings on which minimum auto-enrolment contributions are calculated — between the band’s lower and upper limits, not on the whole salary (unless the scheme chooses a more generous basis).
NEST
The National Employment Savings Trust — the government-established workplace pension scheme any employer can use to meet auto-enrolment duties; the default choice for many small employers.
Salary sacrifice
An arrangement where an employee gives up contractual salary in exchange for a non-cash benefit — commonly pension contributions, cycle-to-work or EVs — usually saving both sides National Insurance. Must not take pay below the minimum wage.
IR35 / off-payroll working
Rules that tax contractors like employees when the working relationship looks like employment despite an intermediary company. For medium and large clients, deciding status — and issuing a Status Determination Statement — is the client’s responsibility.
NMW / NLW
The National Minimum Wage age-band rates and the National Living Wage (the top rate, for workers 21 and over). Rates change every 1 April; underpayment risks arrears, penalties and public naming.
TUPE
The Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations: when a business or service provision transfers, staff move to the new employer on their existing terms, with dismissal and consultation protections. Applies to outsourcing and insourcing as well as sales.
ACAS
The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service — the public body whose Codes of Practice shape fair discipline and grievance processes, and whose early conciliation step is mandatory before most employment tribunal claims.
DBS check
A criminal-record check from the Disclosure and Barring Service, at basic, standard or enhanced level depending on the role. Only certain roles — regulated activity with children or vulnerable adults, for example — justify the higher levels.
Right-to-work check
The check every employer must complete before someone starts work — via share code, manual documents, or a certified IDSP — with follow-up checks for time-limited permissions. Getting it right provides a statutory excuse against illegal-working penalties.
Zero-hours contract
A contract with no guaranteed hours. Workers still accrue holiday (typically via the 12.07% method), earn at least minimum wage, and cannot be bound by exclusivity clauses. Further reforms under the Employment Rights Act agenda continue to tighten this area.
Rolled-up holiday pay
Paying an irregular-hours or part-year worker’s holiday pay as a 12.07% uplift on each payslip instead of when leave is taken — lawful again for leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024, provided it is itemised separately.
PILON
Payment in lieu of notice — paying out a departing employee’s notice period instead of having them work it. Taxable as earnings, and cleanest when the contract expressly allows it.
Garden leave
Keeping a leaver employed — on full pay, away from work and systems — during their notice period, typically to protect clients and confidential information while restrictive covenants tick down.
Statutory notice period
The legal minimum notice an employer must give: one week after a month’s service, then one week per full year up to twelve. Contracts can give more, never less.
Probation period
A contractual trial period with shorter notice and lighter process. It has no special statutory status today — statutory rights run from day one regardless — which is why fair-dismissal reforms make well-run probation reviews increasingly important.
Current rates for the terms above live on the statutory rates 2026/27 page — this glossary stays deliberately number-free so it never quietly goes stale. Plain-English guidance, not legal advice.
Software that speaks this language natively.
Every term on this page is a feature, not a footnote, in Blankitt HR — from P45 collection at onboarding to RTI at payday.