Getting Rid of Old Payslips - Good Idea?

TheGardener

I recently checked my state pension contributions and discovered 6 years of contributions were missing from the mid 80's. The fact I have kept every payslip I ever had since the mid 70's (all digital now) meant I was able to challenge the record and have it corrected without any trouble. Without payslip evidence I'm not sure what I could have done.

AS for never looking at a payslip - I learned my lesson years ago when an employer got something wrong - I now check them every month - its only takes a few moments.

Kynthia

When it comes to claiming pensions, both state pension and workplace pension, they payslips can be extremely useful. I've known people prove thry were entitled to a greater DB pension due to having proof of their membership in the scheme and salary at the time. I know others who have found them useful when needing to prove dates of employment years later.

At a minimum everyone should keep P60s for life. If you don't have room for all your payslips then keep at least one per year.

Savvy_Sue

TheGardener wrote: »

I recently checked my state pension contributions and discovered 6 years of contributions were missing from the mid 80's. The fact I have kept every payslip I ever had since the mid 70's (all digital now) meant I was able to challenge the record and have it corrected without any trouble. Without payslip evidence I'm not sure what I could have done.

Also worth hanging on to them if you have a student loan to repay: DS2 found on his latest statement that the payments deducted by his employer were not showing on his annual loan statement. He had to produce payslips for the relevant period to prove they'd been deducted.

TheGardener wrote: »

AS for never looking at a payslip - I learned my lesson years ago when an employer got something wrong - I now check them every month - its only takes a few moments.

Absolutely! I do some of the admin for payroll where I work, and we very occasionally make mistakes! Usually we notice them, and we NEVER mind if someone checks something.

iltisman

It is worth hanging on to them even if 30+years old. I applied for a job and the security check needed an employment history. The government organisation I worked for in the 70s denied that I had worked for them ,the 5 years of monthly payslips saved the day.

[Deleted User]

I used to keep them and had about 5 years worth from current employer and about 4 years worth from previous employer. I got rid of them all earlier this year as current employer went online with payslips and now I just download the PDF to my PC.

I still keep all P60s though.

robatwork

Are you really so short of space you can't keep them?

I would, and do, keep them all. Who would have thought a barclaycard statement from 1984 would have been useful - but if it helped someone claim back £3,000 in PPI it's worth a couple of A4 ring binders.

If you really need the space, scan them in 3 at a time and keep the PDFs. Even 10 years worth would only be 40 pages.

agrinnall

robatwork wrote: »

If you really need the space, scan them in 3 at a time and keep the PDFs. Even 10 years worth would only be 40 pages.

I'd need an A2 scanner to do that as my payslips are A4, but as they come as a PDF in the first place I don't need to .

robatwork

agrinnall wrote: »

I'd need an A2 scanner to do that as my payslips are A4, but as they come as a PDF in the first place I don't need to .

I have noticed a move towards A4 payslips, but I would imagine all payslips that are issued as A4 today are also sent as PDF. I know local authority payslips are A4/PDF.

It's only the traditional payroll programs that are printing 3 per A4

PersianCatLady

agrinnall wrote: »

I have all of my payslips in physical form (and about the last 4 years as PDFs too) going back to when I moved from contracting to a permanent job in 2003. They don't take up much space and they don't eat anything. I've never needed to look at one but if got rid of them you can be sure that's when I will need to see one.

I have an old fling cabinet full of paperwork (mostly crap) and I was going to sort through it all and shred most of it.

Anyway, I didn't get around to it.

Prior to starting a completely different career in September, I had to provide an account of all the time since I left school as part of the employer's safer recruiting strategy.

Luckily the payslips in the filing cabinet were there and it made this task really easy and (sadly enough) quite interesting as well.

kittycat66

You could email them to yourself on Facebook (if you have it). Then if you ever need it, it is there .. and not clogging up your hotmail or gmail )