Underpayment of Holidays

[Confuzzled18]

I gave a month's notice to my employer on the 31st July. My last working day is Friday 30th August.

I was owed eight days holiday and agreed to take the eight days as payment rather than actual holiday.

My payslip has come through and it is showing the eight days at a rate of £13.73....this surely cannot be right. I don't know what my hourly is but I am salary at £26,484.42

My contract doesn't say anything about holiday pay being done at a lower rate or anything like that - it simply says "On termination of the employment you will be entitled to a pro rate payment in lieu of any unused holiday entitlement." If I had known my holiday pay would be at a lower rate, I would have taken them as actual holiday and started my new job earlier.

I've requested to speak to the HR department but they are saying no one is available until after pay day (Thursday). Any advice?

[Amethyst]

You work 5 days a week, 8 hrs a day, 52 weeks ? Daily rate should be around £100 ( about £12.78 an hour ) - and yes accrued holiday should be paid at your full pay rate. If your hours are more irregular then it may be calculated differently like average daily pay of last six weeks etc for example .... - any idea what you were paid previous holiday that you had taken ? ( should be detailed on your pay slip the month after you'd taken a holiday day )

[Amethyst]

£13.73 seems to be hourly rate if you worked 37 hrs a week. So they may have mistakenly used hourly rather than daily rate?

[Confuzzled18]

Thanks for your reply.

I've checked previous payslips when I had taken holiday and the holidays are not mentioned. I work 37.5 hours a week.

After the email stating I could not speak to anyone in HR I received the following message:

"I’ve just had a look at your payslip and apologies, it would appear that payroll have processed 8 hours holiday pay rather than the 8 days we submitted.

We will get this corrected ASAP and arrange a pay advance - if [the council we are owned by] can recalculate in time the first pay advance is on Thursday and you should be included on that. This will however mean that you will remain on our payroll until September where the corrected pay and cash advance will be processed via payroll and your P45 will be re-issued.

Apologies for the confusion, we will let you know as soon as the correct figure has been recalculated."

As pay day is on Thursday I've asked if this means I may not be paid on time. I've also asked what the implications of me staying on their payroll and additional month and what the corrected pay and cash advances mean.

I'm so angry at them, again. My partner said he would put money on them messing up my final pay - glad I didn't make that bet.

[Confuzzled18]

£13.73 seems to be hourly rate if you worked 37 hrs a week. So they may have mistakenly used hourly rather than daily rate?

What's that site you're using? Looks helpful

[Amethyst]

Salaryconverter.co.uk ( just easier than using a calculator )

[Confuzzled18]

Thanks

I'm terrible at maths so am a fan of any sort of converter.

[ULA]

It sounds like you have pay day on Thurs in which case they have probably already processed your pay with the incorrect holiday pay and made arrangements to issue your P45 based on those calculations. What it sounds like is they are trying to see if they can process effectively an "advance on salary" equal to the corrected holiday pay calculation to be able to pay that on Thurs. What then will have to happen is that they will need to reconcile that "advance" when they next run the payroll in Sept and also issue the revised updated P45.

Are you moving straight to a new job? If so when is payroll and do you know when they prepare for the payroll?

[Confuzzled18]

Yeah that's what it sounds like. I've been paid what was on my payslip today and promised the balance 'before you leave' (30th).

I am moving straight in to a new job so I'll need to let them know I wont have my P45 right away. Pay day in the new job is the 28th of the month but I don't know when cut off will be. Do I need the P45 in order to be paid or is that why I'd be emergency taxed? Sorry, this makes me sound like an idiot but I've not had issue with pay before.

[ULA]

When you start at your new job explain that you do not yet have a P45, it does sometimes happen so don't worry. They will get you to complete a "Starter Checklist" which will then help HMRC apply the correct tax code, given what you have been paid to date and the tax on that and your salary at your new job. It may not be quite correct for the first month but it will adjust itself.

[ostell]

When I was handling payroll Emergency Code is just the basic amount of personal allowance so unless you have a lot of additions to your basic allowances it should not affect you too much. It will correct itself within one or two paydays