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A payday date written as a number on the calendar is not always the day the money lands. When the date falls on a weekend or a bank holiday, some employers pay earlier and some pay later, and which one yours does is set by your employer. The dates below are the ones to check now, with the days of the week for the rest of the 2026/27 tax year, which ends on 5 April 2027. Put the date you expect into the payday countdown and change it if payroll tells you something different.
Bank holidays between now and April 2027
GOV.UK lists these. The three nations differ, so use the list for where you work.
England and Wales
- Friday 25 December 2026, Christmas Day
- Monday 28 December 2026, Boxing Day (substitute day)
- Friday 1 January 2027, New Year's Day
- Friday 26 March 2027, Good Friday
- Monday 29 March 2027, Easter Monday
Scotland
- Monday 30 November 2026, St Andrew's Day
- Friday 25 December 2026, Christmas Day
- Monday 28 December 2026, Boxing Day (substitute day)
- Friday 1 January 2027, New Year's Day
- Monday 4 January 2027, 2nd January (substitute day)
- Friday 26 March 2027, Good Friday
Northern Ireland
- Friday 25 December 2026, Christmas Day
- Monday 28 December 2026, Boxing Day (substitute day)
- Friday 1 January 2027, New Year's Day
- Wednesday 17 March 2027, St Patrick's Day
- Friday 26 March 2027, Good Friday
- Monday 29 March 2027, Easter Monday
Which common paydays are affected
The most common monthly pay dates are the 25th, the 28th, the last day of the month and the 1st. This is where each of them falls between now and March 2027.
- The 25th. Sunday 25 October 2026. Wednesday 25 November. Friday 25 December, which is Christmas Day. Monday 25 January 2027. Thursday 25 February. Thursday 25 March.
- The 28th. Wednesday 28 October. Saturday 28 November. Monday 28 December, a bank holiday. Thursday 28 January 2027. Sunday 28 February. Sunday 28 March.
- The last day of the month. Saturday 31 October. Monday 30 November, which is a bank holiday in Scotland. Thursday 31 December. Sunday 31 January 2027. Sunday 28 February. Wednesday 31 March.
- The 1st. Sunday 1 November. Tuesday 1 December. Friday 1 January 2027, a bank holiday. Monday 1 February. Monday 1 March. Thursday 1 April.
For weekly pay on a Friday, three Fridays are bank holidays in all three nations: 25 December, 1 January and 26 March. Four-weekly and fortnightly pay depends on your own cycle, so count it forward from your last payslip rather than from the calendar.
Your contract or payslip should say what happens when a payday is not a working day. If it does not, ask payroll once, in writing, and keep the answer with your payslips. The site's guide to how pay lands explains why paydays move.
A worked example: the long gap over Christmas
Take someone paid on the 25th of each month. The 25th of December is Christmas Day, so the money will come on a different day, and your employer decides which one. Suppose it is paid on Thursday 24 December. The next payday is Monday 25 January 2027. That is 32 days.
A December payday is also the one with the most spending in it, so the money has to cover Christmas as well as the ordinary month. Say you have £400 left on 24 December after paying bills and the Christmas costs:
- £400 across 32 days is £12.50 a day.
- If payroll pays a day earlier, on Wednesday 23 December, the gap is 33 days and the figure falls to about £12.12.
The calculator does this division for you, and the difference between the two cases is small. The point of running both is that you find out the number before December, not in the middle of it.
Money that arrives early is not extra. The next payday has not moved, so the gap is longer by the number of days early it came. That is why the example above starts on 24 December and not the 25th: work the daily figure out from the day you actually receive the money to the day you expect the next payment, not from the date printed on the contract.
A weekend payday works the same way. If yours is the 28th, it falls on Sunday 28 February 2027, so the money could arrive on the Friday before or the Monday after, and the gap to the next payday changes by a day or two either way. Use the date payroll confirms, not the one on the contract.
Setting the dates out on the wall
A paper calendar helps because the dates sit where you see them every day, and a phone calendar needs opening. Two kinds are useful:
- A Ad tax year wall planner running April to April matches the 2026/27 year, so the 5 April year end sits in the right place. Mark paydays, direct debit dates and the bank holidays above.
- A Ad monthly desk calendar with large squares leaves room to write the day's figure from the countdown.
Ad Coloured dot stickers let you code paydays, bill dates and bank holidays without writing the same word each time. Paper bills belong in a Ad bill organiser with monthly dividers kept next to the calendar, so the due date on the bill and the date on the wall are in the same place.
Checking it each month
Once a month, around payday, check three things:
- Is the next payday a weekday and not a bank holiday?
- If it is not, has payroll said whether it will be paid earlier or later?
- Does the daily figure still work with the date you now expect?
Change the date in the countdown if the answer to the second question is different from what you assumed. The figure updates with it.
Dates beyond April
This list stops at the end of the 2026/27 tax year. Later dates are on the same GOV.UK bank holidays page, which is worth checking each time a new tax year starts, because it takes a minute and saves a surprise at payday.