Nhs car salary sacrifice problem with line manager.

abs14

I recently applied for a car from the NHS salary sacrifice scheme.
The fleet company have confirmed that everything is fine regarding thr terms and minimum salary requirement.
Apparently my line manager keeps declining the application when asked to confirm my employment.

I'm going to confront thr line manager about this, I have no disciplinary actions, I've been employed for over 10 years.

It's my understanding the line manager is only supposed to be confirming current employment in my department, so WTH, 

Any advice of what to do about this?

Ebe_Scrooge

I'm not familiar with the requirements of this scheme - but it sounds like you just need to provide confirmation of your employment status?  If that's the case, surely either the HR or the Payroll department would be able to provide what you need?

I'm curious as to why your manager would decline such a request in the first place - surely it's no skin off his/her nose?

tacpot12

I would ask your line manager why they are doing this, and made a written note of their answer (do so after you are no longer in their presence). You should not 'confront' them with it, as this just sets you up to have a problem. Just ask them calmly and politely why they have done this (despite how much you might be upset by it). There might be any number of reasons. 

Then consider whether you need to raise a grievance against your line manager.  Your Employees Handbook should tell you how to do this. 

They might have done so once, in error, but to do so more than once means that it is probably a deliberate act, so you need to find out why they are doing this. They might be misunderstanding something, or have an issue with you, or have had an IT problem; the point is, you don't know until you ask them, and it might be something you can fix together without having to involve HR. 

elsien

I would suggest not confronting, but rather asking the line manager politely what the issue is.
Don’t assume malice where incompetence/lack of knowledge of systems may be what is going on here. 

Goudy

Does your trust not sign up to an employee benefits program like Vivup?
If so they should liase direct with Payroll.

If not, your line manager will have a general or group manager, ask them (in writing or email) if you can use their name on the paperwork, that might prompt the correct response from your line manager.

Otherwise have a quiet word and point out you will have to use their managers name on the paperwork if they don't comply.

You could always ask a union rep for help, they'll usually offer help and advise even if you aren't a member.

There are other avenues into cheap cars via different NHS schemes and the savings can be better than SS as you won't usually save on PAYE with a car on SS,(though you would a bicyle) just NI and Pension contributions (something that might effect your overall entitlement in the long run).

I used my Blue light Card with Renault and saved nearly £5k on a new Clio.
Fiat/Afla/Jeep have schemes called Affinity and Privilege for NHS workers.
There's also specialist dealers like Griffin Mill and Motor Source (google their websites) that can arrange NHS discounts on a range of cars.
SWMBO got her car via Motor Source and saved over £4K, all I think they asked for was a copy of her NHS ID and a Payslip.

Manxman_in_exile

abs14 said:

I recently applied for a car from the NHS salary sacrifice scheme.
The fleet company have confirmed that everything is fine regarding thr terms and minimum salary requirement.
Apparently my line manager keeps declining the application when asked to confirm my employment.

...

Any advice of what to do about this?

I'm a retired NHS manager and was one for about 25 years.  Your manager won't be doing this without good reason and until you ask them, you won't know why.

Assuming you meet ALL the eligibility critiria (you've only mentioned salary) and your manager only needs to confirm your employment in the NHS, you might want to ask yourself the following before asking them (very nicely) what the problem is:

-  Are you definitely a NHS employee and not an employee of some third party "partner" organisation like the social services department of a county council?  You'd be surprised how many people think they are employed by the NHS when they aren't.

-  I'm not familiar with the particular scheme you refer to, but is it possibly restricted to certain NHS trusts or functions, and you are not employed in an eligible capacity?  I've worked in a NHS department where people doing "the same" job were employed by three different NHS organisations and enjoyed slightly different "benefits".

-  Have colleagues employed in exactly the same capacity as you been able to use the scheme without problems?

-  Have you asked your union if they know what the problem might be?


Until you ask your manager you won't know what the problem is, but before doing so, ask yourself the above questions.

Personally, I wouldn't dream of escalating this above your manager's head - either to HR or to your manager's manager - until you've asked them (nicely) why they are not just OKing this.

(Maybe it's a sign of how long I've been retired but you seem to me to be doing this backwards.  In my day nobody would be looking at this sort of scheme without first confirming with their line manager that they were eligible in the first place and that there were no issues ... )

Grumpy_chap

abs14 said:

I recently applied for a car from the NHS salary sacrifice scheme.
The fleet company have confirmed that everything is fine regarding thr terms and minimum salary requirement.
Apparently my line manager keeps declining the application when asked to confirm my employment.

I'm going to confront thr line manager about this, I have no disciplinary actions, I've been employed for over 10 years.

It's my understanding the line manager is only supposed to be confirming current employment in my department, so WTH, 

Any advice of what to do about this?

A polite "ask the manager in conversation" will be more likely to achieve the desired outcome than an aggressive "confront the manager".  Certainly not to escalate.

It may be that the Manager has not actually declined the application but ignorant of process or failed to respond in a timescale, which returns a "decline".  Obviously depends on the technicalities of the process.

Or, as suggested above, a technicality that means you are not eligible for some reason.

A casual conversation may be all it requires to know what the situation is and / or move it forwards.

littleboo

Sounds rather strange the the line manager wouldn't pro-actively tell their team member why they couldn't approve the request, particularly if it was more than once and there was a fundamental problem. But as already said, you need to politely ask them what issue is 

Money_Grabber13579

It is perfectly possible that the line manager is unfamiliar with getting such a request and so doesn’t know why they are receiving it. Having had it drummed into us in my organisation about not giving any details of other staff members out to anyone who calls, it may be that they think they are doing the right thing and protecting data. The best way of approaching this would have been to let the line manager know in advance that it was coming, or if that wasn’t possible, to now give them a heads up as to what you are doing and ask them if they can approve it.