A payslip generator is only useful if what it generates is a lawful payslip, and the law is specific about the lines. Every worker has the right to an itemised pay statement at or before the time they are paid, and since April 2019 that right covers workers as well as employees, with hours shown where pay varies by hours worked. A generator that produces a gross figure, a net figure and nothing between them is producing a receipt, not a payslip, and it will not survive a question from a lender, a letting agent or an employment tribunal.
The lines a payslip has to carry
Gross pay before deductions. Every deduction separately, each with the amount and, where the amount varies from period to period, what it is for: Income Tax under PAYE, Class 1 National Insurance, a workplace pension contribution, a student loan repayment, an attachment of earnings. The net figure actually paid. The amount and method of each part-payment where pay is split between accounts. And, where pay varies according to hours worked, the number of those hours, either as a single total or broken down by rate. A payslip may also carry a tax code, a National Insurance number, a payroll number, the period and the year-to-date totals, and in practice almost all of them do, because that is what makes a payslip checkable.
What a generator can honestly produce, and what it cannot
A generator can compute the statutory lines exactly: given a gross figure, a tax code and a National Insurance category it can produce the Income Tax and NI to the penny for a period, because those are published rules. What it cannot do is make a document evidence of employment that did not happen. A generated payslip for a job you do not hold is a forged document, and it is used often enough in rental and lending fraud that letting agents and lenders now verify against HMRC records. If you want a record of pay you were genuinely given, ask your employer for a duplicate: they are required to provide the statement in the first place.
Payslip download: what you can actually get
Three things get called a payslip download. The first is your employer's own portal, which is the only one that produces the real document for a period you were paid. The second is your HMRC personal tax account, which shows what your employer reported for each period, so it is a check on a payslip rather than a copy of one, and it is the thing to reach for if an employer will not reissue. The third is a blank or worked template, which is what most search results offer: useful for checking arithmetic, worthless as evidence. This page's calculator does the arithmetic on the statutory lines; it does not produce a document with anybody's name on it.
Checking a payslip you already have
Work the period figures out independently and compare. On a monthly payslip the Personal Allowance is spread evenly, so a standard 1257L code gives £1,047.50 of tax-free pay in the month, and National Insurance at category A is charged on pay above the monthly primary threshold of £1,048 at 8%, and at 2% above the monthly upper earnings limit of £4,189. On £30,000 a year the deductions are £3,486 of Income Tax and £1,394.40 of National Insurance across the year, leaving £25,119.60, or £2,093.30 a month. If your own payslip is materially different, the usual causes are a wrong tax code, a week-1 or month-1 marker, a pension under a net pay arrangement, or a student loan plan you did not expect.
If your employer does not give you one
The right to an itemised statement is statutory, and the route if it is refused is a complaint to an employment tribunal for a declaration of what should have been itemised. In practice the complaint is rarely needed: most failures are a portal nobody told you about, or a payroll bureau sending statements to an old address. Ask in writing, name the periods, and keep the reply. A missing payslip also tends to travel with other problems, an unreported employment or a deduction nobody can explain, and the personal tax account is the independent record that shows which.
Questions people ask about payslip generator uk
Is a generated payslip a legal document?
Only if it reflects pay that was genuinely made by the employer it names. The lawful document is the itemised pay statement your employer must give you. A generated sheet is a calculation, and presenting one as evidence of employment is fraud.
What must appear on a UK payslip?
Gross pay, each deduction with its amount, the net pay, the amount and method of any part-payments, and the hours worked where pay varies by hours. Most payslips also show the tax code, the period, and year-to-date totals.
Can I download old payslips from HMRC?
Not the payslips themselves. Your personal tax account shows the pay and tax your employer reported for each period, which is enough to check a figure or reconstruct a year, but the document itself comes from the employer.
Do payslips have to be on paper?
No. Electronic is fine as long as it is itemised and provided at or before the time of payment. A portal you cannot reach is not provision, which is worth saying in writing if you are locked out.