New job - no pay for seven weeks

glider3560

I started a new job on 10th July. After not receiving any pay or a payslip in July, HR informed me that I missed the payroll cut-off, which is 7th July! They inform me that the whole lot (July and August) will get paid on 31st August.

Fine, but is it really acceptable to make a new employee wait seven weeks for their first pay?

Also, I suspect this will have a large impact on my NICs and Student Loan repayment for this month, since these are calculated on a monthly basis?

Takeaway_Addict

Yes- You should have asked upon the offer of the job

glider3560

Takeaway_Addict wrote: »

Yes- You should have asked upon the offer of the job

The contract says I would be paid monthly in arrears. No mention of a cut-off. My experience of similar employers is that the cut-off is normally about a week before payday.

marliepanda

But you didn't check or clarify, you just assumed.

I've had it both ways with monthly in arrears. I've waited two months for pay before when starting early month

You don't check, and it's certainly not unacceptable.

Takeaway_Addict

glider3560 wrote: »

The contract says I would be paid monthly in arrears. No mention of a cut-off. My experience of similar employers is that the cut-off is normally about a week before payday.

But your experience previously counts for nothing here I'm afraid.

chrisbur

glider3560 wrote: »

Also, I suspect this will have a large impact on my NICs and Student Loan repayment for this month, since these are calculated on a monthly basis?

National insurance should be worked out as if these two payments were made separately. The old NI guidance book gives the following example of just this case.
"Example
A new employee starts work on 9 June and is due to
be paid monthly on the last day of each month. The
earnings period is monthly and the first payday is
31 July (mistimed payments). The employee receives
£2,250 gross pay which is made up of:
£750 for the period 9 June to 30 June
£1,500 for the period 1 July to 31 July.
Work out NICs separately on the payment:
•
for June of £750 and record NICs on the employee’s
payroll record in tax month 3

•
for July of £1,500 and record NICs on the employee’s payroll record in tax month 4"


The latest online version can be seen here....
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cwg2-further-guide-to-paye-and-national-insurance-contributions/2016-to-2017-employer-further-guide-to-paye-and-nics
Section 3.1.5 has the details same as above.

glider3560

chrisbur wrote: »

National insurance should be worked out as if these two payments were made separately. The old NI guidance book gives the following example of just this case.
"Example
A new employee starts work on 9 June and is due to
be paid monthly on the last day of each month. The
earnings period is monthly and the first payday is
31 July (mistimed payments). The employee receives
£2,250 gross pay which is made up of:
£750 for the period 9 June to 30 June
£1,500 for the period 1 July to 31 July.
Work out NICs separately on the payment:
•
for June of £750 and record NICs on the employee’s
payroll record in tax month 3

•
for July of £1,500 and record NICs on the employee’s payroll record in tax month 4"

That's a relief! I didn't like the idea of losing an additional 12% on the pay from July.

chrisbur

glider3560 wrote: »

That's a relief! I didn't like the idea of losing an additional 12% on the pay from July.

Meant to add to my post that this is what should happen; in my experience it sometimes does not happen. You should check when you get your payslip.

[Deleted User]

glider3560 wrote: »

Fine, but is it really acceptable to make a new employee wait seven weeks for their first pay?

Pretty increasingly normal I'm afraid in my experience over the last couple of years. Even one time I started as a company's direct Temp which I wrongly presumed paid weekly due to the very nature of being a temp; I found it was 6 weeks expected before pay.

One company took pity and offered an advance of a couple of week's when payday fell for everyone else one other time. But are few and far between.