Bank holiday? You get paid early, not late.

This is the question that gets asked every single bank holiday, usually on the morning itself: my payment was due today and it hasn't arrived. In both Ireland and the UK the answer is nearly always the same — it came early. Neither system pays late for a holiday, and you never lose a payment.

The rule, in each place

Ireland: if your payment is due on a public holiday it is paid on the previous working day. If it goes into your bank it arrives early; if you collect it at the post office it is available from that day too. Jobseekers do not sign on on a public holiday. Child Benefit generally lands as normal.

UK and Northern Ireland: if your payment date falls on a bank holiday or a weekend, you are paid on the last working day before it.

Ireland — every remaining bank holiday

UK & Northern Ireland — remaining 2026 bank holidays

UK bank holidays for 2027 are not listed here because gov.uk does not confirm them this far ahead. We will add them when it does, rather than guess at dates people would plan around.

Which payments does this affect?

Any payment whose due date lands on the holiday. In Ireland that most often means the weekly payments — State Pension on a Friday, Disability Allowance on a Wednesday, One-Parent Family Payment on a Thursday — and Child Benefit or Domiciliary Care Allowance when a monthly date happens to fall on one.

Some payments have no fixed day at all — Jobseeker's, Carer's Allowance, Illness Benefit and Working Family Payment are set by your office or your claim. We do not publish a day for those, because a wrong day costs somebody a trip to the post office. Check MyWelfare or your award letter. The full picture is on our payment dates checker.

For December, when several holidays land together and the Christmas Bonus is in play, see Christmas payment dates.

Common questions

General information, not financial advice. If a payment is genuinely missing, contact the office that pays you.