advice please got £60 deducted for crb without any notice

princessnadi

Hi

I hope you can offer me some advice please.

I started working for a company and had to do a crb check - fair enough but wasn't told at the time of my interview and when signing the paperwork that i'd had to pay for it out of my wages. so now when my payslip i'd done £100 work of work, had £60 deducted re crb and only had £40 paid - i feel as if i've been cheated, done alot of work for just £40. I phoned them up and explained that no one had told me about me me paying for the crb ,as i've had them done in the past and i've never paid for one so far.

Apolonation

I'm no expert but my common sense tells me they can't deduct this from your salary. They either ask you to pay in advance or pay for it themselves. If I was you I would demand it back and tell them you'll sue them if they refuse.

unemployedJCP

princessnadi wrote: »

Hi

I hope you can offer me some advice please.

I started working for a company and had to do a crb check - fair enough but wasn't told at the time of my interview and when signing the paperwork that i'd had to pay for it out of my wages. so now when my payslip i'd done £100 work of work, had £60 deducted re crb and only had £40 paid - i feel as if i've been cheated, done alot of work for just £40. I phoned them up and explained that no one had told me about me me paying for the crb ,as i've had them done in the past and i've never paid for one so far.

Sounds an unfair scam to me.

£60 for an CRB seems very pricey!!

I would personally contact HMRC stating they had paid you under the National Minimum Wage. Although employers are free in certain circumstances to make deductions and that doesn't fall under the NMW; I can't see how the CRB check is so expensive (I will explain below) so I would assume that it is an unlawful excuse to withhold payment to you which makes them liable for paying under the NMW.

Enhanced CRB checks are around £36 or £40 max. A standard disclosure is a little cheaper. I have experience with voluntary sector and a lot of charities get them through a bigger umbrella body or the local council and pay between £7.50 to £15 for a disclosure - whether they are approved via CRB or if the council subsidizes it I am not sure but regardless of whom you work for it shouldnt be more than £40.

I think you have good cause for a compromise of the cost being spread 50/50 - the employer didnt state they would cover it (ideally you should check) and they also didnt mention that you have to pay. HOWEVER as the amount is very excessive I would consider reporting them to HMRC as it seems like they have covered the costs themselves but tried to tax you to get your wages lower.

princessnadi

thank you both for a quick reply - i will contact hmrc tomorrow and also the company as my husband told me to request some signed paperwork stating that i agreed for paying for the crb with the cost showing.

mikey72

Very similar post
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2201583&highlight=agency+crb

mroakley

Plenty of good advice here so I don't need to add to that. I just had to mention that if an employee somehow managed to obtain £60 from their employer without their prior knowledge and consent there'd be bleedin' hell to pay! The police would no doubt be called in to investigate the matter.
Honestly, it makes me so mad the way some employers think they can walk all over their workers and generally treat them like sh*t.
Anyway - Good luck to you, Princess, whatever course you decide to take.

Savvy_Sue

I don't believe the employer can do this UNLESS there is a clause in your contract allowing them to make such deductions from your salary. If there isn't, it's an unlawful deduction.

Of course you may not yet have a contract, and you may find when you get it that it says they'll bill you for the costs of your CRB. No harm in asking now ...

anamenottaken

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

I don't believe the employer can do this UNLESS there is a clause in your contract allowing them to make such deductions from your salary. If there isn't, it's an unlawful deduction.

Of course you may not yet have a contract, and you may find when you get it that it says they'll bill you for the costs of your CRB. No harm in asking now ...

However as an employee paying for a CRB is not required by statute, putting such a statement in written particulars which are not issued until after the event would mean that the deduction would still be unlawful.

A deduction for CRB would, however, have no effect on NMW calculations.

At least they are asking for payment for the CRB from earnings rather than asking before any work is done. But I agree they are over-charging - it's not just the payment they would have made to CRB themselves.

DVardysShadow

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

I don't believe the employer can do this UNLESS there is a clause in your contract allowing them to make such deductions from your salary. If there isn't, it's an unlawful deduction.

Of course you may not yet have a contract, and you may find when you get it that it says they'll bill you for the costs of your CRB. No harm in asking now ...

But the employee should be giving knowing consent to the deduction. Putting it in a contract which arrives after the deduction is made is not acceptable.

princessnadi

i don't work for them anymore so i don't care what trouble they get into now - at least will stop them from doing this to someone else in the future. All i was told that they will do a enhanced crb check - they phoned me to ask me to come into the office and sign it and still didn't tell me that i'd be footing the cost for it. - there as far as i can remember no clause in my contact to say that they can make deductions - that's why i'm requesting a copy of my contarct which i wasn't given when i went for my interview.

DVardysShadow

princessnadi wrote: »

i don't work for them anymore so i don't care what trouble they get into now - at least will stop them from doing this to someone else in the future. All i was told that they will do a enhanced crb check - they phoned me to ask me to come into the office and sign it and still didn't tell me that i'd be footing the cost for it. - there as far as i can remember no clause in my contact to say that they can make deductions - that's why i'm requesting a copy of my contarct which i wasn't given when i went for my interview.

May be you unwittingly signed to pay the fee too?