Mileage Claims

mrsdarbs

Hi guys, hoping someone here will be able to here my colleagues and I.

We all work within a community midwifery team and each month submit mileage claims. However, although we submit these to our line manager, who ensures us that she then gets them to her manager on time, they are not being paid.

A colleague has spoken to the main manager and she assures us that she gets them to the payments department on time, but the payments department are telling us they are not received on time, hence not getting paid.

Our issue is that this is not being resolved and is happening month after month and obviously we are out of pocket financially.

We are unsure of what action we can take - do we go to the union or somewhere else???

Many thanks

bap98189

Someone in the chain is not getting the forms to the right place at the right time.

You need to take some initiative here. Phone up and find out from the payment department exactly when they must be received for them to be paid out that month. Then make sure that you submit them to your manager well before that deadline. Finally chase up your line manager and "ask nicely" whether they have managed to get them signed off and sent to the payment dept on time.

saintjammyswine

Do they have to go via the 3rd party (manager) or could you submit directly to the payments dept?

mrsdarbs

thank you. our claims are submitted to our manager at least 10 days before the deadline - for example - May's claim (the one we are currently having issues with) was submitted to our line manager on 20th May - they had to be to the next manager for authorisation by the 1st June and then to the payments department by 2nd June for payment on the 24th. I personally called the payments department this morning to check the deadline dates etc.

Our manager is going to speak to the next manager to try and clarify these deadlines, but this has been done previously and nothing is changing and we cannot 'chase' the head of our department (the manager that authorises them) as it wouldn't look professional and to be honest she would get in a right s#*t about it. We asked her this morning if they had been submitted and she was like 'yes and on time, I can do my job'.

It just seems so unfair that each month we spend so much of our time, firstly trying to get hold of our payslips and then chasing all the departments/people for money owed to us. These claims aren't for £10 or £20 quid etc they are for hundreds of pounds so it really does impact on personal cashflow.

Enfieldian

So are you now getting your claims paid one month in arrears?

ohreally

Send an email to the payroll manager, cc your manager as well if you wish.

mrsdarbs

Enfieldian wrote: »

So are you now getting your claims paid one month in arrears?

They are always paid in arrears as the pay run is processed at the middle of the month, so April's would be paid in May and May in June - but now we aren't going to get May's until July's pay.

ohreally wrote: »

Send an email to the payroll manager, cc your manager as well if you wish.

Payroll don't want anything to do with the travel claims - it's a seperate department?!

NoSatisfaction

An alternative may be to ask for an expenses float. These are small tax free loans that are paid back when you leave your employer and cover the period from when you pay out and get the money back.

I asked my employer for 2 months worth of average claims and they stumped up. I put the money in my current account so that I don't go overdrawn if my expenses are paid late. I know not all employers do this but it may be worth trying.

Also, it may be worth getting say a Tesco credit card and filling up there as you get points and a 50 odd day credit period before you have to pay it off (pay it off in full).

Hope this helps?

kazzah60

at some point you need to say to your manager that you are unable to attend women in the community because you have no money to put fuel in your car

this is a TOTALLY unacceptable situation for you to be in - there is NO WAY staff should be subsidising the NHS for fuel costs - and sadly in my expierience the only way it will get sorted is when you refuse to treat women and it starts to impact on care and perfomance indicators

oh, and maybe contact your local press - I am sure they wouls LOVE this story!

Evilm

If you can't resolve why this is happening I agree with the idea of asking for a months float to be repaid out of your last claim on leaving the employer.

I've handled these before in companies and its easy to maintain.

Savvy_Sue

I'd work at the situation from both ends, IYSWIM.

I'd make sure they were submitted in good time. But then if they apparently missed the deadline, I'd be asking when they reached each 'checkpoint'.

It just sounds as if the 1st/2nd of the month may be an issue: what if that person is either not there or has an overload of work, forms just won't get signed off, will they?