Some people prefer more time-off work than their standard entitlement allows, while others might not know what to do with it all. That’s why we give you the flexibility to buy or sell up to five days of annual leave (pro rata for working patterns). This benefit is only available to colleagues on the Anchor payroll system with a fixed income.
You’re not committed forever. When you request to buy or sell holiday it only applies for that holiday year. Want to know more? Read the FAQs below.
Not enough holiday days? School holidays draining your holiday allowance? Want to go on a holiday of a lifetime? Planning to spend time with loved ones? No problem!
If you’d like to buy extra leave, you need to be earning above the national minimum wage threshold. The cost of buying holiday is deducted through payroll from your gross salary (before tax & NI) over 12 months, starting in May. This is known as a Salary Sacrifice arrangement.
Please note you are buying additional holiday for next years holiday entitlement (not the current year).
Too much time on your hands? No worries!
You can sell holiday you don’t need, as long as you have 28 days left (20 days plus bank holidays) after selling. Payments for selling holiday are made in 12 equal instalments to your pay, starting in May (NB a lump sum option is not available).
Please note you are selling from your new holiday year entitlement (not the current holiday year).
If you are a Bank colleague, unfortunately, we can’t accept your request. If you have requested more additional holiday than you are entitled to, your request will be rejected (i.e. if you request to buy 5 days holiday but only work 3 days a week).
You have to be earning above the National Minimum Wage threshold. You can’t legally reduce your pay below the National Minimum Wage so we will be unable to process your request if your salary is below our National Minimum Wage threshold. See separate FAQ on how to take your additional leave in this situation.
The number of days holiday you have left after selling holiday must be above the statutory entitlement. For a fulltime colleague the statutory entitlement is 20 days plus bank holidays, which means a full-time colleague’s holiday entitlement can’t drop below that.
If your request can’t be actioned for any reason, we will let you know as soon as possible.
Yes, however rather than follow the holiday buy process and pay monthly, you will need to ask your manager to book it as unpaid leave for you as and when you take it. This ‘pay as you go’ approach is an alternative for all colleagues who are declined for National Minimum Wage compliance reasons. However, you can still only take up to a weeks leave as an additional benefit.
If you need an email for your manager to confirm your eligibility for unpaid leave as an alternative to holiday buy, please email reward@anchor.org.uk.
You do not have to take all the unpaid leave at once and can spread it over the year, for example if you want a week off you can take 4 days as paid holiday and 1 day as unpaid leave.
You can buy or sell holiday between 1 February and 31 March each year so it takes effect from the start of the new annual leave year in May. You should speak to your manager to agree your holiday buy or sell before submitting a request.
If you have more than one role that you wish to buy or sell holiday for you will need to submit a request for each role.
When you buy extra leave, you agree to a reduction in your gross pay, but you’ll also pay less tax and NI. By requesting to buy holiday you are agreeing to enter into a salary sacrifice agreement.
If you decide to sell some of your allowance, you’ll be paid more and so your tax and NI contributions will increase (NB it is not pensionable).
Eligibility criteria is set within myHR ESS, which means if you try to buy or sell more holiday then you are allowed it will not let you save the form.
Additionally, you can only buy holidays in full days and you can’t sell holiday if your annual entitlement is 20 days + bank holidays.
Remember the holiday buy and sell window is only open 1 February to 31 March each year and you are buying or selling for the upcoming new holiday year (check you have picked the correct year)
Log into myHR ESS and click on ‘my time’ on the left hand side. Then click on ‘view balances’. You can click on the relevant holiday year for a more detailed breakdown where you can see your holiday buy and sell added to you entitlement.
Please note it may take a few hours to update once you have saved your request.
The 2025 holiday buy and sell window is now closed. The next holiday buy and sell window will open in myHR ESS on 1 February 2026.
The leave you buy or sell will apply from May and deductions or payments will start in May and end in April.
The 2025 holiday buy & sell window is open from 1 February to 31 March. You can buy or sell holidays in myHR ESS in a very similar way to booking holiday. By saving a holiday buy form on myHR you are entering into a salary sacrifice arrangement.
The Reward team will do further checks behind the scenes to ensure your request is complaint and will be in touch by 04 April if there are any issues (i.e. you drop below National Minimum Wage by buying holidays or your holiday allowance drops below 20 days + bank holidays when selling holidays).
If you encounter any issues submitting your holiday buy or sell request, drop reward@anchor.org.uk an email and we will be happy to help.
Checking your leave entitlement – You can log into your MyHR account to see your holiday entitlement. Simply click on ‘my time’ on the left hand side and then the ‘doughnut’ graphic to get a breakdown of your holiday year.
Holiday carry over – Remember up to a week of unused holiday will automatically carry over each year.
If you have any general queries about how your holiday entitlement is calculated, please raise a ticket with AskHR or call 0345 604 6635 (option 5).
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