Wages Paid Incorrectly causing time off work!!

Uncertain

Well, in theory at least, if your employer is in breach of contract then they are liable for any losses you suffer directly as a result. As with any such situation you have a legal duty to minimise those losses as far as reasonably possible.

You have advised the employer of the problem but they have not yet corrected it.

So, you have a duty to make reasonable efforts to find the cheapest workable solution. The most obvious would presumably be a short term loan from your bank or an authorised overdraft. You could certainly expect the employer to meet the costs. If for some reason this is not available then a more expensive "payday" loan may still be cheaper than missing work.

What you cannot do is sit on your hands, stay at home and simply say it is all the employer's fault. It may be but you have duties and obligations as well. If you were going to stay at home you need to be able to demonstrate that you have exhausted all other reasonable options.

If the employer refuses to pay your costs you could take them to an employment tribunal but you really don't want to go down this route if at all possible.

Do double check what your contract says about payday. It is possible that the contract gives a range of dates and, despite departing from the norm, they are still within contract.

Finally, I'm sorry to sound harsh but you are running your finances far too tight. It is crazy not to have at least a few weeks money in savings. You really need to put a few pounds aside from each month's salary until you have some reserve.

dizzyrascal

Hi
To all those people who think that everyone should have savings/credit cards etc. Please wake up! Most people do live hand to mouth as it were and most people only have a few quid left over at the end of the month. Not everyone can get an overdraft or a bank loan. Why do you think payday loans are so popular?
When my ex departed these shores and stopped paying my mortgage I had to count every penny to keep a roof over my head and feed my children so I totally understand the OP's dilemma.
This also happened to me once. A clerical error meant that I was marked down as being off sick when I had only had one day off in the previous six months. The payroll system automatically paid half my salary out. This happened on a Thursday and my mortgage went out on the Friday leaving us with nothing to live on over the weekend.
I contacted payroll immediately but they couldn't make the adjustment till they had the correct paperwork etc. Took another week to sort it and it does make you feel very vulnerable and angry. I have to say that payroll were not especially sympathetic when I rang, (not their fault, no point getting upset, not their problem etc.)
Actually it is a big deal when you need every penny and you have bills and direct debits to pay.
Bizarely the system is supposed to send alerts to my line manager about any periods of illness but she claimed that this had not happened?

Uncertain

dizzyrascal wrote: »

Hi
To all those people who think that everyone should have savings/credit cards etc. Please wake up! Most people do live hand to mouth as it were and most people only have a few quid left over at the end of the month.

Most ??

Nonsense!

Yes, there are some genuine hard luck stories where reasonable planning and budgeting is not enough. For those I feel sorry.

However there are far more people who CHOOSE to live a lifestyle they cannot afford and make no attempt at all to give themselves any protection from the unexpected.

How many people can truly say that every single purchase they make is ESSENTIAL rather than optional?

dizzyrascal

Uncertain wrote: »

Most ??

Nonsense!

Yes, there are some genuine hard luck stories where reasonable planning and budgeting is not enough. For those I feel sorry.

However there are far more people who CHOOSE to live a lifestyle they cannot afford and make no attempt at all to give themselves any protection from the unexpected.

How many people can truly say that every single purchase they make is ESSENTIAL rather than optional?

You have clearly never been a single parent or tried to live on the minimum wage.
I had to make choices between which bills I could pay and which ones I had to ignore and hope I could pay later. My ESSENTIALS were mortage and food on the table, after that, everything else was optional. I even managed to get my food bill for 4 of us down to less than £40 per week. Not easy with three growing teenagers as they were at the time, but I can tell you that there was no margin for savings and any extra costs often signalled disaster (and increased stress levels)
Sorry but you are living in cloud cukoo land if you think that most people have savings.
I used to dream of being in a position where I could save money. It is something I am able to do now and I am very grateful for it, but I do know that this is just not an option to many people.

Uncertain

dizzyrascal wrote: »

You have clearly never been a single parent or tried to live on the minimum wage.
I had to make choices between which bills I could pay and which ones I had to ignore and hope I could pay later. My ESSENTIALS were mortage and food on the table, after that, everything else was optional. I even managed to get my food bill for 4 of us down to less than £40 per week. Not easy with three growing teenagers as they were at the time, but I can tell you that there was no margin for savings and any extra costs often signalled disaster (and increased stress levels)
Sorry but you are living in cloud cukoo land if you think that most people have savings.
I used to dream of being in a position where I could save money. It is something I am able to do now and I am very grateful for it, but I do know that this is just not an option to many people.

Whatever!

More relevant in the OP's case is that he will make a difficult financial situation rapidly worse if he stays away from work and the employer refuses to pay him. Even in the unlikely event he could recover this money later that doesn't help now and he will make the working relationship difficult or impossible.

As I said earlier, if the employer is clearly at fault, then he has a strong case to look to them to make good any reasonable losses.

First he needs to contact his manager and explain the situation. You never know they firm may send a taxi in which case problem solved!

ALIBOBSY

Well I would have scrapped up the petrol money from somewhere and gone into work and just sat in HR/personnal/payroll or on the phone to whoever and done no work till it was sorted. If you went in and made a fuss and explained to your manager that you now had no more money for petrol so unless it was sorted you would have to stay home I bet they would have soon sorted it.

Same thing happened to OH and a few other staff (except it was all that months wage)-and they all decamped to payroll or kept calling over and over. In the end they made chaps payments to ev1 that day and agreed to cover any bank charges/interest incurred. Luckily at that point we were both working and had a bit of savings as well as credit cards so would have been ok, but there have been points in our lives when we would have been really stuck.

You need to get onto work and keep calling every 30 mins till its sorted, then they should also cover all phone calls and costs incurred.
good luck
Ali x

denla

ALIBOBSY wrote: »

Well I would have scrapped up the petrol money from somewhere and gone into work and just sat in HR/personnal/payroll or on the phone to whoever and done no work till it was sorted. If you went in and made a fuss and explained to your manager that you now had no more money for petrol so unless it was sorted you would have to stay home I bet they would have soon sorted it.

Same thing happened to OH and a few other staff (except it was all that months wage)-and they all decamped to payroll or kept calling over and over. In the end they made chaps payments to ev1 that day and agreed to cover any bank charges/interest incurred. Luckily at that point we were both working and had a bit of savings as well as credit cards so would have been ok, but there have been points in our lives when we would have been really stuck.

You need to get onto work and keep calling every 30 mins till its sorted, then they should also cover all phone calls and costs incurred.
good luck
Ali x

This is why employers are increasingly becoming relunctant to hire people living outside of walking distance (5 miles) from work.

Uncertain

denla wrote: »

This is why employers are increasingly becoming relunctant to hire people living outside of walking distance (5 miles) from work.

Really?

There must be a lot of vacancies in Central London then!

jonjb_2

Hi All,

Thanks for the responses.

I have since managed to borrow some money to be able to travel to work. In response to those that say that people dont live hand to mouth I would like them to consider what outgoings someone may have on a monthly basis and work out the math. £16k works out to around £1066 net income a month. Rent at £500, council tax at £69, Gas electric and water £100, food £120, insurances £130. As you can see this leaves me with about 200 a month spare for anything else. I have a 10 year old son who has needs and then to those that say i should be saving the rest.... I did!

It took me nearly 12 months to put the money aside to do my gas courses which I paid for and completed 3 weeks ago, which ironically was the reason i had the time off work!!!

I am contracted to be paid on, or before, the 28th of the month. My budgeting works well and I am never usually short of money (well to this degree) but this is assuming that I am paid correctly which is the very least that I expect from my employer.

I will be in at 5 tomorrow morning and hopefully this will be sorted.

Like I said previously I appreciate all of the responses but there may be a few people on here that dont live in the real world when considering people on a low wage, while still living a normal life.

Thanks All, will keep you informed and would appreciate any more comments in the mean time.

somethingcorporate

What insurances do you have that cost £130? Mine are a fraction in comparison...

Do you not have a partner? Do they not contribute to the upkeep of your family? Did you not consider the financial implications of having a family before having kids??

Do you have sky tv, broadband, mobile phones etc? I am sure there are lots of things that you consider essential that are really just wants rather than needs.

I've never been on a low income which I know I am lucky for but I know plenty of people working on NMW that have far nicer things (iphones, cars, 50" plasmas etc) than I do and wonder why they have no money left.