p*ssed off, taken too many holiday hours (despite being told that I wasn't) so have lost most of my saved money

[TheLadyOfTheGreenKirtle]

I have recently left a major frozen foods retailer due to ill health, on my last payslip it said that I had 15.7 holiday hours left to take before october. last year I lsft taking my holidays til the last minute because i was worried about taking hours I hadn't accrued. I was told not to worry, that the figure was my holiday entitlement. the manager is pressing everyone to take all their hours and book up now. today I was expecting my 15.7hh plus £350 in christmas club money. while we are waiting for benefits etc to get sorted we needed that money. i was only paid £130. ive rung up payroll who said i accrued 53 holiday hours but have taken 80 in the year. holiday entitlement is not carried over, in fact i had to be paid the last periods excess. holiday entitlement is worked out in 6m periods. last period i had 66hr entitlement, this period because my hours reduced i had 39hrs.

surely they should have taken any excess out of my week in hand? and i still dont understand the holiday hours thing. if my manager is telling me to take hours ive not yet earned is that right?

I'd imagine the hours still to take, were "still to take" only if you worked until October which you haven't.

That's normal practice. My work tells me on Jan 1 how much I can take in a year (four weeks) and I might take two weeks in February but that means I need to work until the end of June to have earned all of that holiday.

I imagine the manager was just pushing you to book holiday so he could sort his rota. It doesn't mean you're entitled to be paid even if you don't stay.

OP in general holiday hours/entitlement is given for a fixed period (say 24 days per year) but they are only accrued as you work. So in this example you would accrue 2 days per month.

If you work for the whole year then there is no problem when and where you take your leave. However if you leave partway through the year you will only be entitled to a proportion of your leave. For instance using the 24 day example if you left after 6 months you would have only been entitled to 12 days paid leave. If you had taken only 10 then you would receive 2 days additional pay with your final money. However if you had taken all 24 then you should be deducted this amount from your final salary.

I can't quite follow your allowance above but if you want more info just let me know.