Paying back training costs

chrisrawles · 17 October 2016 at 6:02PM

All,

My partner has just got a new job but this means she is leaving her current employment within 12 months of receiving training. She had to sign a training agreement that she would need to repay back training costs if she left within 12 months of completing the training.

Her employer wants her to pay £1000 a month for 3 months until this is repaid. She has said she can not afford this due to mortgage payments. There is no payment terms on the agreement and no timescale. She has offered to pay £20 a month (although this might be taking the biscuit) but its still an offer of repayment in line with the agreement.

She has been threatened with being deducted £1000 from her next pay although she has not authorised this.

1. Can her employer take this amount of money
2. Can they force her to pay pack within a certain timeframe although there is nothing in the agreement

Any help would be welcomed

Grumpygit · 17 October 2016 at 6:39PM

But she signed the contract which stated that she would have to repay if she left so she should repay.

Whilst I can't comment on the legal side of things in respect of her contract, was it the sort of training that would help her in this new job and has she approached her new employers to see if they would repay the costs?

This type of thing is quite common.....someone who worked with me left and also had to repay study costs - not just what we had paid out for her but also what we had reimbursed to her previous employer. The amount was circa £11k and we did have the power to deduct from her final salary if the amount wasn't repaid by the time she left. Her new employer's policy was to only repay study costs following completion of probation so she was between a rock and a hard place in that in theory, she would have had to take out a short term loan to repay us. Her new employer did settle the costs with us but I know that they weren't happy about it.

Whilst there may not be a specific time period within the study contract, it's usually understood that it would be by the time you had left their employ.

Is there a specific reason for her leaving so soon after the training?

elsien · 17 October 2016 at 6:46PM

Did the training agreement she signed give the right to deduct costs from her final salary payment?
If she wants to resolve it she might want to consider making a sensible offer as £20 a month if she owes 3 grand is taking the proverbial and is bound to rile the employer.
Is that the full amount or is it on a sliding scale according to how soon after the training she leaves?

chrisrawles · 17 October 2016 at 6:47PM

Bit more on the background. It was suggested that she did the 2yr college course to assist with her job role which included teaching mature students 1 evening a week. (She was already a qualified teacher but it was suggested to her anyway) She did it and one year in to the course there was a huge restructure which meant she was no longer required t teach and therefore the course was pointless. She completed it anyway so not to breach the agreement. Things are still very unsettled at her work and she along with a few others have since found new work. Her new job does not require this qualification she gained but thats not the point here.

As I said she/we have no problem repaying the amount but it would need to be affordable to her/us as we are not in a position to suddenly pay back 3k just like that. So we are not trying to get out of paying but just make small affordable payments.

chrisrawles · 17 October 2016 at 6:52PM

Deduction from her salary is in the agreement but only if "arrangement of repayment is not arranged by time of leaving employment"

No sliding scale is mentioned. Its a pretty wooly agreement for the amount of money in my eyes,

So we are at the stage of negotiating repayments but no way can she/we afford £1000 a month as they have requested.

takman · 17 October 2016 at 8:26PM

It's pretty silly to not consider this when she started looking for a new job.

Why didn't she just wait until the 12 months was up if this is something she can't afford to pay back in a reasonable amount of time.

I think she should offer to pay them £250 which will pay them back in a year so they may be convinced to accept.

I assume she must be getting paid a good amount more to be tempted to leave in the 12 months she knew she would have to pay back £3000?.

C.M. · 17 October 2016 at 8:28PM

Legally (I work in HR and I'm very familiar with these arrangements) her employer is permitted to deduct money from her final salary, but the deduction must not leave her with less than the equivalent of minimum wage for the hours worked

So if she is above 25, the minimum she can be paid is her contracted hours x 7.20.

If she signed the training agreement then she has already authorised this deduction

I would suggest that she puts her proposed payment arrangement in writing, stating that any more would leave her in financial distress.

However, if the offer is too small then her employer can and very well might deduct the maximum allowable from her final salary and then pursue her for the rest.

chrisrawles · 18 October 2016 at 2:09PM

First off she is not happy in her job and an opportunity came up to move out of education and move in to a very large company with great benefits. No one should be unhappy in their job as we spend so much of out time at work so I disagree with saying she is silly.

All communication so far has been via email.

Like i have said above she/we are not refusing to repay but the monthly payments will need to be reasonable so bills can still be paid. How can someone be expected to pay £1000 a month just like that!

We are open to discussion with them to talk it out but there is no willing from their side.

EssexHebridean · 18 October 2016 at 2:41PM

chrisrawles wrote: »

First off she is not happy in her job and an opportunity came up to move out of education and move in to a very large company with great benefits. No one should be unhappy in their job as we spend so much of out time at work so I disagree with saying she is silly.

All communication so far has been via email.

Like i have said above she/we are not refusing to repay but the monthly payments will need to be reasonable so bills can still be paid. How can someone be expected to pay £1000 a month just like that!

We are open to discussion with them to talk it out but there is no willing from their side.

From what you've said, it seems as though her contract made it fairly clear that they would expect it paid back before she leaves though? You said

Deduction from her salary is in the agreement but only if "arrangement of repayment is not arranged by time of leaving employment"

There's no mention of there being an option to pay back in instalments there - and you seem to suggest there's not one elsewhere, either? It may be worth her making a sensible offer but by "sensible" I'm thinking more like £500 a month - it probably wasn't the smartest move to offer £20 a month, to be quite honest as it just looks like she is being flippant about it now.

abby1234519 · 18 October 2016 at 2:55PM

As an employee who has also received training I wouldn't consider leaving my job until the training period part had ceased. Although for me it is 2 years. And another 2 years if I take more training next year (which I will)

Even if I was unhappy. Purely because I would have received the training in good faith etc.

I understand your partner's situation though and can empathise.

I would suggest that £20 would be seen as a bit of an insult, given how long it would take to pay back maybe they think she doesn't intend to? Can you pay £250 a month?

Sanctioned_Parts_List · 18 October 2016 at 3:44PM

EssexHebridean wrote: »

There's no mention of there being an option to pay back in instalments there - and you seem to suggest there's not one elsewhere, either? It may be worth her making a sensible offer but by "sensible" I'm thinking more like £500 a month - it probably wasn't the smartest move to offer £20 a month, to be quite honest as it just looks like she is being flippant about it now.

This happens a lot in my industry.

As a general rule, for my rotten bunch, the next company won't take on the previous company's training loan automatically - you have to negotiate it as part of your deal. In terms of arrangements to pay, again for my industry, most companies will consider 6 months, or until the end of their accounting year, whichever is sooner.

But to echo others here - bit late for you, but in future, don't quit before the training period is up, or if you do, make picking up the tab a condition of employment at the next place before you accept their offer.

Greetings from Korea, by the way.

Paying back training costs

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