It depends who ends the contract
Notice pay when you leave early turns on who is leaving and who agreed. The three common cases are very different.
1. You resign and your employer lets you go early
If you hand in notice and your employer agrees you can finish sooner, you are normally paid only to your last day. You are not entitled to pay for the weeks you do not work, unless your employer chooses to pay them. Get the end date in writing. Resigning also usually means giving up redundancy pay, so check first.
2. You resign and simply stop working
Walking out before your notice ends is a breach of contract. Your employer can stop paying you from the day you stop working. They could in theory claim damages for genuine losses, but this is uncommon in practice. It can affect your reference, so it is usually better to negotiate an earlier leaving date.
3. Your employer ends your job early
If your employer tells you to leave immediately, you are generally owed your notice pay: through a PILON clause if your contract has one, or as damages if not. This is taxed as earnings. See what PILON is for how it is calculated and taxed, and the notice pay calculator to estimate yours.
Example: you earn £1,000 a week with 6 weeks' notice, and your employer ends your job after 2 weeks. You are owed the remaining 4 weeks, or £4,000 gross.
Holiday pay and final pay
Whichever route applies, you should receive pay up to your last day plus pay for accrued untaken holiday. Check your final payslip for both, along with any commission or bonus you are contractually due.
Checklist before you agree an early finish
- Agree the last working day and the last day of employment in writing.
- Ask whether you will be paid for the remaining notice.
- Confirm how accrued holiday will be handled.
- Check any restrictions that apply after you leave.
If you are leaving because of redundancy, your notice rights are different. Read redundancy notice periods.