Changing from monthly to fortnightly pay and losing money

chrisw99

For 20 years I have been paid monthly at the end of the month. From October my company is forcing a change upon is (without prior consultation or agreement but that's another story).

On 28th September we get paid for 1st to 30th September (as usual).
On 14th October we get paid 1 weeks work from 1st to 7th October.
On 28th October we get paid 2 weeks work from 7th to 21st October.
And so on.

So we have moved to a week in arrears, in effect only getting 3 weeks pay in October.

On top of that, with it being fortnightly we are now paid 26 times a year compared to 12. This means someone who got £1000 a month now only gets approx £920 a month ten months of the year, but £1300 in march and september when there are 3 fridays.

It seems to make monthly budgeting a nightmare, as your payday is constantly shifting each month. e.g. 11th and 25th in Nov, 9th and 23rd in Dec, 6th and 20th in Jan...

Has anyone ever been through this? Does being paid much less 10 months of the year feel like you have taken a pay cut even though you get two larger months?

Can a company even change this when it currently says in black and white in my contract I am paid monthly on the 28th? I can probably cope with the fortnightly thing if I had no choice, but losing a weeks pay in October is a real killer.

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

So you get in effect 26 payments a year at a rate of £920 a month. I would budget on this amount each month.

About twice a year, you will get three payments in a month. Take this as a bonus

marliepanda

You're not 'losing' any money, looks like it will be paid in November.

Yes it's an adjustment and I am in no position to tell you how easy or not that is, but you're not 'losing' any money.

chrisw99

marliepanda wrote: »

You're not 'losing' any money, looks like it will be paid in November.

Yes it's an adjustment and I am in no position to tell you how easy or not that is, but you're not 'losing' any money.

We are effectively losing a weeks pay in October as we move to being paid 1 week in arrears. We will only get it back when we leave or retire, which could be in another 20 years time.

Using the example of someone currently being paid £1000 a month, it goes like this
Aug - 1000
Sep - 1000
Oct - 691
Nov - 920
Dec - 920
Jan - 920
Feb - 920
Mar - 1384
Apr - 920

and so on

marliepanda

Like I said, I agree that in the short term it's going to be an adjustment, however, you are not losing it as in you're never going to get it. Many companies pay in arrears and people do t get that arrears until they leave.

Really you need to take this up with your company using your figures and say look, this is a wage short £300 to what I am used to due to this Change.

They may offer some sort of loan/wage advance to be paid off.

chrisw99

marliepanda wrote: »

Like I said, I agree that in the short term it's going to be an adjustment, however, you are not losing it as in you're never going to get it. Many companies pay in arrears and people do t get that arrears until they leave.

Really you need to take this up with your company using your figures and say look, this is a wage short £300 to what I am used to due to this Change.

They may offer some sort of loan/wage advance to be paid off.

In the short term it's going to be a nightmare. The £1000 a month was just a simple example to keep the maths easy, when you earn 4 times that much you are talking about losing several hundred in October, a couple of hundred in Nov, and Dec, and Jan, and Feb. For those of us who are very close to the overdraft limit on the current pay day, so suddenly have a month that is hundreds and hundreds less, will wipe us out. You then have another few months (including Christmas) that you are again short, so it will rapidly spiral out of control

It's ok if you have the financial buffer to suddenly switch out of the blue to a week in arrears, but most of us don't.

The company repeatedly states "no one is going to be worse off". :mad:

marliepanda

If you earn £4000 a month then you should have a financial buffer. I earn half that and have a years bill payments in savings.

The company are right. No one is going to be paid less, you're being paid differently.

With your figures you should still be getting nearly £3000 in October. If anything those larger figures make it even sillier.

I can totally see why £700 a month is untenable. But nearly £3000?

Get a credit card to cover you for the short term and use the HUGE March payday (of Close to £6000!) to get yourself out of debt.

TELLIT01

marliepanda wrote: »

If you earn £4000 a month then you should have a financial buffer. I earn half that and have a years bill payments in savings.

Lots of people live to their earnings and beyond! At one time I worked for a subsidiary of one of the then "Big 4" banks, and reported direct to the Managing Director. We were chatting about holidays and he said he couldn't afford to go away that year because of the cost of his
mortgage. He was earning in excess of £100k per year!! His missus did also enjoy helping to spend his salary.:)
Whether or not they should have a financial buffer is irrelevant. The simple fact appears to be that there isn't one.
As a short term fix it's either use a credit card, or with borrowing being so cheap now, get a bank loan equivalent to the shortfall in the first wage packet. Once the second pay hits the bank the OP should be back in their original position regarding earnings per month.

[Deleted User]

As others have said you are not "losing" any money £12000 a year is £12000 a year no matter if it is paid in 12 or 26 equal payments over the year. Could you maybe change some of your direct debits to come out on different dates.
Your employer can force a contractual change like changing a pay date / frequency.

chrisw99

Deleted_User wrote: »

As others have said you are not "losing" any money £12000 a year is £12000 a year no matter if it is paid in 12 or 26 equal payments over the year. Could you maybe change some of your direct debits to come out on different dates.
Your employer can force a contractual change like changing a pay date / frequency.

Going forward once the week in arrears is long forgotten, then yes. But the simple fact is in the financial year 2016, we will be paid 51 weeks not the usual 52 and that is what is annoying us all.

I rang the ACAS helpline and they said if the contract says we are paid on the 28th, then the company cannot change that without prior consultation. No ifs, no buts, he said, it's there in black and white. But they say they can. Stalemate..

surreysaver

The company can do what they like. Whether they should or not is a different matter, but if they shouldn't and you don't take them to court or tribunal, then they have got away with it.