- Trust Centre (publish-ready)
Suggested URL: /trust-centre
Meta title: Trust Centre - How PayslipIQ Handles Your Payslip Data | PayslipIQ
Meta description: Plain-English detail on what happens when you upload a payslip to PayslipIQ - what we do, what we never do, what is stored, and how to escalate if you need a human.
1. Your payslip is sensitive. We treat it that way.
A payslip is one of the most personal documents you own. It shows what you earn, where you work, your tax position, and - in many cases - your address, your National Insurance number and your pension scheme. We have built PayslipIQ around a simple principle: you should be able to get a useful second opinion on your payslip without handing your data over to a marketing pipeline, an employer, or HMRC.
This page explains, in plain English, exactly what happens when you upload - and exactly what does not. If anything here is unclear, please email privacy@payslipiq.co.uk and we will respond within five working days.
2. What happens when you upload a payslip
When you upload a payslip image or PDF, four things happen, in this order.
First, your file is transmitted from your device to our servers over an encrypted connection (HTTPS / TLS 1.2 or higher).
Second, your file is passed to an AI processing layer that reads the figures on the page - gross pay, tax code, National Insurance, pension, student loan, net pay and similar items.
Third, those figures are compared against the UK or Irish tax-year rules that apply to your stated circumstances, and a structured report is produced.
Fourth, the report is shown to you in your browser, and the working copy of your image is, by default, deleted from our servers.
You do not need to create an account, you do not need to give us your email, and you do not need to give us your National Insurance number. We strongly suggest redacting your NI number before you upload - see Section 5.
3. What we do not do
We want to be specific, not vague.
- We do not log into HMRC on your behalf.
- We do not contact your employer, your payroll provider, your umbrella company, or your pension scheme.
- We do not submit a tax-refund claim on your behalf.
- We do not sell your data to advertisers, data brokers, recruiters, lenders, or insurers.
- We do not use your payslip data to train AI models.
- We do not require you to install software, browser extensions, or mobile apps.
- We do not ask for your bank details to run a check.
- We do not store your payslip image after the check completes, by default.
If any of this changes, we will update this page, change the "Last reviewed" date at the bottom, and post a note in our changelog.
4. What data is stored
We try to be honest here, including about the bits that are less convenient.
On our own systems, by default, we do not retain your payslip image after your check completes. We retain a small set of non-identifying technical logs (timestamp, anonymised event data, error codes) for up to 30 days, to help us diagnose faults and prevent abuse.
On our AI processing provider's systems, your file may be held transiently while the model produces its output. Depending on the provider's current policy, this transient retention can be up to 30 days for abuse-monitoring purposes, after which it is deleted. We do not control the provider's internal retention windows, but we do choose providers whose enterprise terms prohibit using your data to train their public models.
On your own device, your browser may cache the report you see on screen. You can clear that at any time.
If you would like a written summary of the current AI provider, the current contractual position on retention, and the current data-processing addendum, email privacy@payslipiq.co.uk.
5. Privacy-first upload - redaction guidance
You do not need to give us everything on your payslip. To get a useful check, we mainly need: your gross pay, your tax code, your NI category and amount, any pension and student loan deductions, your net pay, and the pay date.
We strongly suggest you redact, before uploading:
- Your full National Insurance number (the last four characters are enough for most checks)
- Your home address
- Your bank account details if shown
- Your full date of birth
- Your employee or payroll reference number
- Your employer's name if you would prefer to keep it private
You can redact on a phone with any free markup tool, or by covering the relevant lines with a slip of paper before photographing the payslip. The check will still work.
6. Educational guidance only
PayslipIQ produces educational guidance. It is not regulated tax advice, not regulated financial advice, not legal advice and not employment-law advice. We are not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority, we are not an HMRC-recognised tax agent, and we are not a firm of solicitors or accountants.
What that means in practice: our reports are designed to help you ask better questions of the people who can give you a binding answer - HMRC, your payroll team, your pension provider, your accountant, your union, Acas, or Citizens Advice. We do not make decisions on your behalf, and you should not treat the report as a final word.
7. When to contact payroll, HMRC or a professional
If your PayslipIQ report flags an issue, here is who we generally suggest you speak to next.
| If the issue is about... | Try first | If unresolved, escalate to | What you usually need to hand |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tax code (BR, 0T, K, W1/M1, etc.) | Your employer's payroll team | HMRC personal tax helpline (0300 200 3300) | Your latest payslip, your previous P45 if any, your National Insurance number |
| Missing pay, missing hours or missing bonus | Your line manager and payroll | Acas (0300 123 1100) for unresolved disputes | Contract, rota, payslip, written request to payroll |
| Pension contributions that look wrong | Your pension provider and payroll | The Pensions Regulator | Scheme name, contribution rate, last three payslips |
| Possible tax refund | HMRC directly via gov.uk (free) | A reputable accountant for complex cases | Last three payslips, P60s, P45s, employment dates |
| Employment dispute (deductions, dismissal, contract) | Your employer in writing | Acas, then Citizens Advice, then an employment solicitor | Contract, payslips, written correspondence |
In all cases, you can usually claim a tax refund directly from HMRC for free. You do not need a refund company to do it for you.
8. Affiliate and partner transparency
PayslipIQ may, in time, link to third-party services such as accountants, employment law firms, pension consolidation tools or financial wellbeing apps. Where we earn a commission from a click, application or sign-up, we will say so on the page, in plain English, before you click. We do not accept payment for inclusion in our calculation logic, in our methodology page, or in the PayslipIQ report itself. Editorial decisions are kept separate from commercial ones.
9. Corrections and updates
If you believe any figure, statement, or piece of guidance on PayslipIQ is wrong, we want to know. Email editorial@payslipiq.co.uk with the page URL and the issue. We aim to acknowledge corrections within five working days and to publish, where relevant, a dated correction note on the affected page.
We also review every calculation page at least once per UK tax year, and again whenever HMRC, The Pensions Regulator, Student Loans Company or Revenue.ie publish a material change.
10. Contact
- Privacy and data questions: privacy@payslipiq.co.uk
- Editorial corrections and factual challenges: editorial@payslipiq.co.uk
- Security disclosures (please use responsible disclosure): security@payslipiq.co.uk
For data-subject access requests under UK GDPR or the Irish Data Protection Act 2018, please email privacy@payslipiq.co.uk with "DSAR" in the subject line. We aim to respond within one calendar month.
Last reviewed: 3 May 2026
Next review: by 3 November 2026, or sooner if the law changes.
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