Employer not deducting pension contributions

elwappo

Hi all,
I've recently left my employer to move to another company. My old employer emailed me today and said they have not been deducting my pension contributions from my salary for the last eleven months (but they have been paying my pension contributions via a direct debit to my pension provider). Hence me getting full pay without my pension deducted. There's nothing on my pay slip relating to my pension either.

This is the interesting part - I was informally told by my boss of this error about 2-3 months ago and that it was happening not just to me, but to everyone else who was paying into a stakeholder pension - their deductions were not being taken too. I was also told informally and verbally that nothing would be done about it as they would call it a "little bonus". I thought great.

The fact that I have now left and and they have now indicated the error on email has left a bitter taste in my mouth - they haven't said directly in the email said they want it back. Should I respond to the email describing the conversation I was party to, so I have a trail indicating the situation? I'm not not sure how to approach this.
Thank you in advance.

[Deleted User]

personally i would ignore the e mail,their mistake...they pay

elwappo

woodbine wrote: »

personally i would ignore the e mail,their mistake...they pay

I presume because my pay isn't wrong, there's not much they can do about it?

sourcrates

Hi,
Anything said verbally on matters like this, you can't be held liable for, same goes for emails, if they want there money back, they would have to formally write to you, stating the error, and asking for the money back.
If that happened, you would be well within your rights to ask how this error occurred, and question your liability, as it appears to be there fault, and not yours.

Unless you receive something in writing, I would ignore it completly.

andyfromotley

elwappo wrote: »

I presume because my pay isn't wrong, there's not much they can do about it?

I definitely wouldn't assume that!!

I have no idea but i assume that they just reclaim it from the pension fund?

elwappo

sourcrates wrote: »

Hi,
Anything said verbally on matters like this, you can't be held liable for, same goes for emails, if they want there money back, they would have to formally write to you, stating the error, and asking for the money back.
If that happened, you would be well within your rights to ask how this error occurred, and question your liability, as it appears to be there fault, and not yours.

Unless you receive something in writing, I would ignore it completly.

Yes, I've had an email pointing out the error but also with other correspondence in there too - nothing formal. I presume I would be well within my right to ask if this has happened to anyone else in the company and whether they will be applying a blanket recovery policy to all? Based on what I've said above, it looks like they're just trying to recover it from me cos I've now left. They've indicated a change of accountant caused the error (it's in the email), hence I presume I'm pretty much in the clear?

andyfromotley

elwappo wrote: »

Yes, I've had an email pointing out the error but also with other correspondence in there too - nothing formal. I presume I would be well within my right to ask if this has happened to anyone else in the company and whether they will be applying a blanket recovery policy to all? Based on what I've said above, it looks like they're just trying to recover it from me cos I've now left. They've indicated a change of accountant caused the error (it's in the email), hence I presume I'm pretty much in the clear?

I wouldn't assume that either!!

No one on here is going to be able to give you an answer to this as its an unusual set of circumstances. But to just assume and presume you will never have to give them the cash either directly or from your pension fund could leave you very disappointed.

elwappo

andyfromotley wrote: »

I wouldn't assume that either!!

No one on here is going to be able to give you an answer to this as its an unusual set of circumstances. But to just assume and presume you will never have to give them the cash either directly or from your pension fund could leave you very disappointed.

I agree with you. My point is that the error occurred not only with me, but with others too. So as has been pointed out, there's the question of liability, how the error occurred and the fact that they couldn't just ask me for the money back without I'd imagine asking everyone else to pay it back. Unusual circumstances I know, but I think it's just been put out there to see with how I come back to the issue. As I said, they've not "directly" asked me to pay it back. It's just a bitter left a taste when I know how the error happened which has been explained to me and then saying take it as a "little bonus".

andyfromotley

yup i agree, i think it would kinda suck if they just tried to take it back off only you.

If they did, i think id tell em to go squat. But is it just you that they are hinting that they want it back from?

ReadingTim

I'm sure your former boss would love for nothing to be done, and it be classed as a 'nice little bonus' - presumably he's a member of the scheme too? However, unless he's a very senior member of the management team, I don't think he'll have much influence on what actually happens in this matter, and even if he did, nothing's been written down, save for the e-mail you've recently received.

If I were you, I'd sit tight and see what happens next. Given you've left the company, options to recoup the deductions which should have been made are more limited, as they can't do it from salary. I would imagine your choices will be to make a repayment to the company to cover what should have been deducted, or they will reclaim from the pension scheme the overpayments they incorrectly made on your behalf - this is clearly an administrative error from which you can't expect to profit. Sorry!

Brightspark87

Hi

The pension company will be unlikely to refund, as the 'over' payments have been invested and are likely to have gone up or down depending on the markets.