Can a BACS salary payment take more than 3 days sometimes?

tomatoplant

My partner started a new job in May and his employer doesn't give a date that he will be paid. They say that it will be within a few days of the first of the month so I would assume that they action the payments on the first.

I have found out that BACs payments are supposed to take 3 days and with the June pay it was the 6th before any staff got paid, which I know they were all angry about so I don't think it usually happens quite so late. In July it was within 3 working days (over a weekend) but this month we are still waiting and hoping that it will be now tomorrow.

It seems it is a case of 'you get your pay when you get it' and I know it is a matter of a day or two but as we are on a very low income and due to other personal circumstances it is really a case of not being able to buy any food or pay the 'red notice' bills until the pay arrives and it feels like clock-watching. I know that other members of staff find it equally tight at this time of the month.

Does anyone know anything about what is acceptable when giving employees an expected date of pay? It might be that we have just had a good experience before as all our previous employers said 'this is the day you will be paid' and it was, instead of this limbo we are in now.

Thank you for your help.

Edited: Found my partner's employee handbook and it actually says withing 5 working days of the first of the month and that any discrepancy in this is the fault of the employee's choice of bank/building society and so payments may take longer than 5 days! We bank with Nationwide if that really does make a difference but is this really so? It means that some months the pay will be earlier then some later then. At his last employment he got paid weekly by BACs on the day stated with no problems and it was a poorer run operation but there we are.

ThumbRemote

I don't know about the legalities or what is acceptable, but why not assume he will be paid on the 6th every month. That way you budget accordingly, although you may need to be disciplined in not using the money received if its paid early.

alanq

Assuming that the salary is sent by BACS on the 1st banking day of each month...
Monday 6th June was 3 banking days after Wednesday 1st June.
3 banking days after Monday 1st August will be Thursday 4th August.

It looks like if the 1st of a month is a Saturday it will be Thursday 6th before pay arrives and Bank Holiday weekends will extend the delay.

JohalaReewi

Also, if paying into some accounts they may be an extra day for internal processing by that organisation (e.g some building society accounts).

charlieboycat

JohalaReewi wrote: »

Also, if paying into some accounts they may be an extra day for internal processing by that organisation (e.g some building society accounts).

Probably what is happening here - either at the paying end or at the receiving end. A BACS payment sent from a real bank on Working Day 1 would arrive at a real bank on Working Day 3 (not Working Day 4 as seems to be the case here).

Sceptic001

A reputable employer should state clearly the date of payment and the employee should have the cleared funds in their account on that date. For monthly paid employees this is often the last working day of the month.

It sounds like your employer is using a bog-standard current account to make BACS payments, which will take three working days to reach the payee. Most employers have a proper BACS account, which allows them to notify BACS of payments due on Day One and the money is then simultaneously deducted from their account and cleared funds credited to the payee's account on Day Three.

There is an interesting thread on BACS here: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3331404

tomatoplant

Thank you for all your replies. I realise it is something that we can't change but just wanted to know where we stand really as we hate the limbo of not knowing!

I have decided to just assume that he'll get paid on the 7th of each month as that is probably the easiest thing to do and hopefully it will all work out as he has only been there 2 months, but we have needed the pay for the last 2 weeks as it is so that's why we notice each day it doesn't arrive. Nationwide do say 4

We already use a budget which we stick rigidly to but due to circumstances we have been on only £39 income a week for almost a year so we are playing catch up really. Crossed fingers it all works out.

Thanks again

McAzrael

Just a note about building societies sometimes taking a day longer - this shouldn't be the case for Nationwide, at least not into a current account. Nationwide have their own sort codes and as far as BACS payments are concerned are a bank. The only other building society I know about is Coventry Building Society and the few I pay who have CBS accounts get their pay on the right day, whether I send it to a HSBC account with their building society account number as a reference (the old way) or whether I send it to their adjusted account number with a designated HSBC sort code (the new way).

cottager

Sceptic001 wrote: »

A reputable employer should state clearly the date of payment and the employee should have the cleared funds in their account on that date. For monthly paid employees this is often the last working day of the month.

Absolutely. This sounds sloppy, as well as a*se about face. It's not the day payroll is run/payment arranged which should be static, but the date payments are in employees' accounts, whether that be the 28th of each month, or the last Friday or whatever.

It sounds like your employer is using a bog-standard current account to make BACS payments, which will take three working days to reach the payee.

It may not be the same at every bank or for every business, but we have a standard business account and as OH is a sole trader below a defined turnover threshold, we can use Natwest's normal online banking for payments. Consequently when I pay wages they automatically go via Faster Payments and arrive straight away. One employee's paid weekly and knows it will be in his a/c every Friday; and the other monthly, on the last day of the month (Friday before if a weekend/bank holiday). It was the same when they went by BACS, before FPS came in -- I just had to organise the payments a couple of days earlier then, i.e. on Wednesday for a Friday credit.