MovePlanTelling your employer you've moved house
Unlike the DVLA or council tax, nobody fines you for this. That's exactly why it's the one people forget — right up until a P60 or a pension letter goes to a house they don't live in any more.
"Your employer's HR or payroll" sits near the bottom of most moving checklists, filed as an afterthought next to gym memberships and magazine subscriptions. That's roughly the right level of urgency — there's no fine for leaving it — but it isn't nothing, and it's worth doing properly rather than mentioning it to a manager in passing and assuming the system updates itself.
What actually depends on the address HR has
| What | Why the address matters |
|---|---|
| Your P60 | Employers must give a P60 by 31 May to everyone on their payroll on the last day of the tax year (5 April). If yours comes by post, it goes to the address payroll has, not the one you actually live at. |
| PAYE records at HMRC | HMRC's payroll guidance tells employers to report your address in their regular payroll submission if your National Insurance number isn't known or your address has changed — so payroll may pass a new address on, but only once HR actually has it. HMRC would still rather hear from you directly, so tell HMRC yourself as well. |
| Workplace pension auto-enrolment | The Pensions Regulator says it is an employer's "legal duty to write to all your staff individually to explain how automatic enrolment applies to them." If that letter comes by post, it goes wherever HR has you down as living. |
What to actually do
- 1
Update it through HR's actual system, not a conversation
Most employers of any size have a staff portal, an HR system, or a form for this. Mentioning it to your line manager is a polite thing to do; it isn't the same as the record itself being updated, and a manager relaying it second-hand is exactly how these things get lost.
- 2
Ask what else is tied to the same address
A company car's insurance, any death-in-service life cover, private medical or dental cover provided through work, and union subscriptions may each be run by a separate provider from payroll — HR can usually tell you whether updating one updates the others, but don't assume it does without asking.
- 3
Do it before the next payslip or P60, not after
There's no deadline, but there's a natural one: you want the change in before whichever of those is next due, so it doesn't go to the old address and then need chasing.
If you're between jobs, self-employed, or your work doesn't run a conventional payroll, this item doesn't really apply to you — the organisation that does matter either way is HMRC, which you tell directly rather than through an employer.
This sits in the "health, family and work" group on who to notify when moving house, alongside the GP, the school and the rest of the list that doesn't carry a legal duty but still matters.
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