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Annual Leave Purchase Scheme

The Annual Leave Purchase Scheme allows staff to purchase up to an additional 10 days of annual leave (pro rata for part-time employees) and spread the cost of doing so over a year through a deduction in monthly salary.

This is available for all staff who are on a regular annual leave scheme and book their annual leave through the online booking system on Employee Self Service. 

Applications will be subject to approval from line managers.

You will not be eligible if you are not on a regular annual leave scheme (e.g. casual workers), the deductions would take your pay below the level of the National Minimum Wage or the change to your salary would impact your visa eligibility.

There will be a single window during which applications under the scheme will need to be made.   This will run from1 July 2024 until 31 August 2024.  You will only be able to apply once and only during the application open dates.

This year due to a change in system configuration occurring in ESS during the application window, applications will be done via the submission of a completed Word Document. To apply to purchase additional annual leave, please complete the Word Document Application Form, send this to your line manager to sign to approve your request, and then send the form with your manager’s approval to AnnualLeavePurchase@reading.ac.uk.

Calculating the Cost of Purchasing Additional Annual Leave

Please also note that Payroll will not be able to calculate individual costs for purchasing annual leave, therefore please find the calculation below:

To calculate how much your annual leave purchase will cost you (gross pay), please use the following calculation:

Full time colleagues:

  1. Divide your annual salary by 52.143 - this will give you your weekly salary.
  2. Divide your weekly salary by the number of hours you work per week (35 notional hours per week for grade 6 and above, 36 hours per week for grade 5 and below) – this will give you your hourly rate.
  3. Multiply your hourly rate by the number of annual leave hours you wish to purchase – this will give you the gross cost of purchasing additional annual leave over the year.
  4. Divide the gross cost of purchasing additional annual leave by 12 – this will give you the gross cost per month.

Please note that this formula will not calculate your net pay, net pay is subject to changes to your tax and National Insurance contributions.

Full time colleague example:

Colleague on grade 4 spinal point 16 (£25,138) wishing to purchase 20 hours of annual leave.

  1. £25,138 / 52.143 = £482.10 (weekly rate of pay)
  2. £482.10 / 36 = £13.39 (hourly rate of pay)
  3. £13.39 X 20 = £267.80 (gross cost of purchasing the additional annual leave)
  4. £267.80 / 12 = £22.32 (gross cost per month of purchasing the additional annual leave)

Part time colleague formula:

  1. Divide the number of hours you are contracted to work each week by either 35 or 36 (35 notional hours per week for grade 6 and above, 36 hours per week for grade 5 and below) – this will give you your full time equivalent (FTE) as a decimal
  2. Multiply your FTE by the full time equivalent salary to give you your yearly salary
  3. Divide your yearly salary by 52.143 - this will give you your weekly salary
  4. Divide your weekly salary by the number of hours you work per week
  5. Multiply your hourly rate by the number of annual leave hours you wish to purchase – this will give you the gross cost of purchasing additional annual leave over the year
  6. Divide the gross cost of purchasing additional annual leave by 12 – this will give you the gross cost per month.

Please note that this formula will not calculate your net pay, net pay is subject to changes to your tax and National Insurance contributions

Part time colleague example:

Colleague on grade 7 spinal point 40 (£49,794), working 17.5 hours per week and wishing to purchase 30 hours of annual leave

  1. 17.5 / 35 = 0.5 (full time equivalent salary)
  2. 0.5 X £49,794 = £24,897 (annual salary)
  3. £24,897 / 52.143 = £477.48 (weekly salary)
  4. £477.48 / 17.5 = £27.28 (hourly salary)
  5. £27.28 X 30 = £818.54 (gross cost of purchasing the additional annual leave)
  6. £818.54 / 12 = £68.21 (gross cost per month of purchasing the additional annual leave)

Application Form

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