Payroll made a big mistake

GreenGreenGrass-of-home

Last April, my husband's employer made an error on his pay slip - they overpaid him that month by approx £11,000 due to a typo on his hourly rate.

He immediately brought the mistake to their attention, and since then there have been numerous discussions and back-and-forth emails about exactly how much he was overpaid.

My husband has been insisting on being given a correct pay slip for that month because it is difficult to accurately calculate exactly how much he should pay back: there's his pension contribution, share purchase and another share thing, healthcare for him, and for the family, etc. etc., as well as - and this is really the cause of the problem - overtime that month.

His employer has repeatedly said that it is not possible for them to give him a correct replacement pay slip for that month. And they say he owes them £11,400 (and have provided a basic calculation).

My husband disagrees with this sum, and says he owes them £10,600 (and has provided a detailed calculation).

Bearing in mind that his employers are unable to give him a correct pay slip for that month (which he is extremely cross about), he has been considering sending them a cheque for £10,600 together with a letter stating that this is correct according to his calculations and that the sum is in full and final settlement of the error.

Our accountant (we have an accountant because my husband has a teeny-tiny limited company as well as being employed) advises us to wait till my husband gets his P60 for 2014-15, and he will then do some calculations for us. I've given him all the figures, plus several months of my husband's pay slips but even he can't be confident in working it out accurately until the P60 is produced.

We're keen to give the overpayment back - as long as it's the correct amount. It's not as if we're making any interest on it.

You might think, bearing in mind that his employer is a global, blue-chip household name, that we could rely on their calculation as being correct. But we really can't. Payroll is not administered centrally, and the staff at the outpost at which he works have over the years proven themselves as not the most competent of people.

So where do we stand?

I think it's pretty outrageous that they can't give him a replacement, correct pay slip for April 2014. And their calculation of how much he owes them is so basic, it's laughable.

agrinnall

The employer is simply not being truthful when they say they can't do it; what they actually mean is that they won't provide the resources that would be necessary to do it. In which case I would follow your accountant's recommendation and wait until the P60 is produced.

GreenGreenGrass-of-home

agrinnall, even then I'm not convinced that it will be accurate. It's going to involve a little guesswork. I just can't believe that a massive company like this can't/won't rectify the problem by producing a correct pay slip for that month.

What if we didn't have an accountant to help? And thank heavens the error didn't occur (I'm using the passive voice though goodness knows why - we know where the blame lies) in March, which would mean the problem would straddle two tax years.

I feel quite cross that they've put us in this position.

chrisbur

Difficult to comment without seeing the full figures but an overpayment in April (I assume month 1 of the current tax year) could well have affected the tax figures for some of the months that followed. It is possible that this affect has lasted until the tax year end so the only accurate way to work out what is owed may well be to re-calculate every month to get correct end of year totals and to then compare month by month to get the amount owed. I assume that this is what your accountant is looking to do.

asajj

Well what could you do when a company is incompetent? Anything you would like to do apart from waiting P60 would be long winded anyway.

Yes it is annoying and strange.
Do you also have a lawyer?

GreenGreenGrass-of-home

asajj wrote: »

Do you also have a lawyer?

Only when we move house!

chrisbur, it makes me want to hide under the table!

pjread

1/ work out the expected gross (assuming you know hours/rates, or salary, plus expected overtime?)
2/ go to https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/how-to-manually-check-your-payroll-calculations and calculate tax and NI liability to get expected NET
3/ Put the difference aside. Don't give them a penny without an updated payslip, especially if this tipped into a higher tax band
4/ Let payroll know the numbers and see if they'll just accept them, if not ask why

GreenGreenGrass-of-home

1&2: We've done this, of course! Our accountant has looked at it too. It's just not that simple.

3: But they will not give us an updated pay slip! :-/

4: He's done that.

kazwookie

Write to the main head office HR department, and tel lthem what the local office / section is up, and ask them for their comments

chrisbur

pjread wrote: »

1/ work out the expected gross (assuming you know hours/rates, or salary, plus expected overtime?)
2/ go to https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/how-to-manually-check-your-payroll-calculations and calculate tax and NI liability to get expected NET
3/ Put the difference aside. Don't give them a penny without an updated payslip, especially if this tipped into a higher tax band
4/ Let payroll know the numbers and see if they'll just accept them, if not ask why

As said before it is quite possible that you will have to run every month for the whole year to get the answer.

OP when you have the full figures for the year you could post them on here to be checked.

antrobus

GreenGreenGrass-of-home wrote: »

....His employer has repeatedly said that it is not possible for them to give him a correct replacement pay slip for that month. And they say he owes them £11,400 (and have provided a basic calculation). ....

I imagine it is pretty much impossible for them to re-run the April 2014 payroll given that it's now March 2015.

In any case, a payslip is simply a piece of paper with numbers on it, that shows how an individual's pay has been calculated. If the employer has provided a letter that shows how the 'correct' pay has been calculated, and how they've arrived at the overpayment of £11,400, then that would qualify as a payslip.