Ssp and term time only?????

Coppard75

Would anyone be able to offer help and advice. I work at a university. Term time only. I have 14 weeks off a year. I recently had an emergency op, leaving me unable to work for 3 months.
I received 2 weeks full pay, then went onto SSP. My second pay slip left me very shocked........basic pay 1089, off set due to sick leave -1289, ssp 354.
Leaving me with 154!!??!!!!
I have ask my line manager, area manager, HR and they have all said yes it's right. No one has explained how I've had more deducted than I earn.
If this is right, how? If it's wrong how do I sort the situation right?

theoretica

Is your pay divided evenly over the year?

If you are sick for 3 months, that is about 1/3 of your working year, but only 1/4 of the calendar year. So either they need to deduct about 4/3 of your monthly salary for every month not worked, or they need to adjust your pay throughout the year to make up for the months out of term when you are paid but not expected to work.

Consider as a thought what would happen if someone was off ill for all 9 months of term time, but well during the holidays. From the employer's point of view this would be the same as being sick for the whole year.

Coppard75

Yes my wages are 12 equal payments over the year. I was due to have 3 weeks off over Christmas, whilst off sick. Have I lost these 3 weeks holiday?
My employer isn't being very helpful on answering my questions. Would ACAS be more helpful?

Savvy_Sue

Coppard75 wrote: »

Yes my wages are 12 equal payments over the year. I was due to have 3 weeks off over Christmas, whilst off sick. Have I lost these 3 weeks holiday?

You continue to 'earn' holiday while you're off sick, but I don't know how it works with term-time only contracts, because presumably you don't normally take holiday during term-time, and you're paid throughout the year.

On a 'normal' contract you could either ask to come off SSP and take paid leave, or you could take the accrued leave before returning to work.

Coppard75 wrote: »

My employer isn't being very helpful on answering my questions. Would ACAS be more helpful?

they might, but they're not always completely on top of unusual situations. You're not in a union, I take it?

antrobus

Coppard75 wrote: »

....
If this is right, how? If it's wrong how do I sort the situation right?

Educational term-time workers - Employees in education including classroom assistants, college lecturers, nursery workers, school bus drivers and kitchen staff may be contracted to work outside of term-times. Entitlement to SSP depends on the type of contract you have with your employee

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/statutory-sick-pay-how-different-employment-types-affect-what-you-pay

Consult your contract.

dlmcr

I think this has something to do with the fact that you get paid 12 months at an equal rate every month even though you have 14 weeks off (so normally you get paid even when you don't work). If you prorated your salary according to the time you actually worked you would get higher monthly payments for the ~9 months you do work and then receive nothing for the time that you don't work. What this means when you are on the part of sick leave that qualifies for ssp is that there is more money to be taken off your monthly payments because you have had more benefit every month when you receive 12/9th of your actual annual salary. In other words your monthly salary is lower than it "should" be as it is not reflective of your actual hours worked (or spent on the sick) for that month. It also depends on your organisations policy on when full pay stops and ssp kicks in for a "normal" full time employee and how that is pro-rated for term time employees.
But really it is up to your employer to answer this properly instead of fobbing you off. I would push and push and push for a proper set of caulculations so that you can see how each of these numbers are arrived at. I suspect that they have no idea themselves how this is calculated but are just just using a computer payroll system that spits out numbers the workings of which is a mystery. If it is anything like some of the organisations I worked at there will be no understanding at all of how the calculations are performed for these types of situations so that is probably why they haven't been very helpful...

Coppard75

Thanks for all the advice. Unfortunately I'm not a member of a union. I still no answers or calculations as to how my wages have made!!! It would seem I'm asking for unicorn poo.
I just hope the situation is sorted out soon, there seems be little thought about the financial hardship this has caused me.

Savvy_Sue

Do the explanations you've been given make any sense of the situation? It's all very well wanting answers, and I agree your employer should be able to give them to you, but if the answer remains "this is what you're entitled to" then no amount of thinking by your employer is going to reduce your financial hardship.

theoretica

I suspect that as a big employer most of the payroll is handled through algorithms - someone types the data in and the computer gives an answer they trust. You want to talk to someone who understands what goes on behind the programming, and there will be relatively few people who do.