Previous employer owes me expenses

EsJay1

I'd appreciate if literally anyone can give me advice.

I left my previous employer on 11th November. I incurred expenses the day before (10th) which I submitted on the relevant system and which were approved on the same day. The way it worked at this workplace was expenses would have to be submitted and approved before COP Tuesday to be reimbursed the same Friday. Because of when my expenses were approved, I should have been paid on 18th November.

On the 18th, I was paid my final salary but I wasn't reimbursed for the expenses. On the 21st, I emailed the HR team (as I didn't have the relevant email) explaining the issue and they put me in touch with the accounts team who asked for the expense ref number. I didn't have this and informed them. They said they'd have to ask IT to reactivate my account. On the 23rd I asked for an update (as it doesn't take 2 days to reactive an account, lets be honest). No response from the account team. On the 24th, I reached out to my former manager (the person who approved the expense) asking for the expense ref number. He provided this to me so I sent it to the Accounts team... No response. I emailed them again on the 28th - no response. I emailed the HR team this morning explaining I've had no response and asking whether they can put me in touch with someone who can help - no response.

Can anyone give me any advice whatsoever? At this point, it's about the principle. I won't be scammed out of my own money that I'm owed.

DullGreyGuy

Your former manager seems to be on your side so why not ask them if they can help chase HR/Payroll? External emails to these types of functions are not always received/best etc. 

Outside that its a letter before action 

EsJay1

Thanks for your prompt response. That's an option, definitely and I'm willing to explore all options.

I just want to try and make sure that from here on in, I'm following the best protocol incase this ends up being more of a issue

tightauldgit

I'd say you write a polite email to the HR team and CC in your old boss (and possibly the accounts team if you have it) just set out the issue again - that you still haven't been paid your expenses for Claim Ref: XXXXXXX and can they please inform you when you will receive those funds. It could be that they've already actioned it and just waiting for a payment cycle to come round, or it could be that someone is on holiday. But at least that way all the relevant people are on the one set of comms. 

I personally don't think there is any point in a letter before action this side of Christmas, as being reasonable this time of year a lot of stuff doesn't get done, people are missing, things get missed. It depends how important the money is to you but I don't think it's too crazy to wait a month or even two to be paid by a business. 

I'd give them 60 days  from when you were supposed to be paid and a reminder or two on the above email and then send a letter before action. 




 

 

 

EsJay1

tightauldgit said:

I'd say you write a polite email to the HR team and CC in your old boss (and possibly the accounts team if you have it) just set out the issue again - that you still haven't been paid your expenses for Claim Ref: XXXXXXX and can they please inform you when you will receive those funds. It could be that they've already actioned it and just waiting for a payment cycle to come round, or it could be that someone is on holiday. But at least that way all the relevant people are on the one set of comms. 

I personally don't think there is any point in a letter before action this side of Christmas, as being reasonable this time of year a lot of stuff doesn't get done, people are missing, things get missed. It depends how important the money is to you but I don't think it's too crazy to wait a month or even two to be paid by a business. 

I'd give them 60 days  from when you were supposed to be paid and a reminder or two on the above email and then send a letter before action. 

I'll try this approach. I'll wait till the new year before sending off a letter before action. Thank you

Marcon

EsJay1 said:

tightauldgit said:

I'd say you write a polite email to the HR team and CC in your old boss (and possibly the accounts team if you have it) just set out the issue again - that you still haven't been paid your expenses for Claim Ref: XXXXXXX and can they please inform you when you will receive those funds. It could be that they've already actioned it and just waiting for a payment cycle to come round, or it could be that someone is on holiday. But at least that way all the relevant people are on the one set of comms. 

I personally don't think there is any point in a letter before action this side of Christmas, as being reasonable this time of year a lot of stuff doesn't get done, people are missing, things get missed. It depends how important the money is to you but I don't think it's too crazy to wait a month or even two to be paid by a business. 

I'd give them 60 days  from when you were supposed to be paid and a reminder or two on the above email and then send a letter before action. 

I'll try this approach. I'll wait till the new year before sending off a letter before action. Thank you

This is all getting a bit heavy handed.

It's annoying that your expenses haven't been paid, but you are letting yourself get very wound up when in truth they are only a few weeks overdue at a particularly busy time of year for any business (and a particularly expensive one for most of us, so yes, I do sympathise, not least in terms of being irritated - I would be, too!). 

What's wrong with ACAS? If necessary, their Early Conciliation Procedure should crack it without any cost to you and with much less aggro than going the 'legal' route: https://tell.acas.org.uk 

SiliconChip

From the number of teams there are it sounds like the employer is quite a large one so it's likely that there is no way to circumvent the payment cycle, so I would expect that your expenses will be processed and paid in the next cycle, presumably somewhere around December 18th (maybe a bit sooner if they do their payroll run early for Christmas).

EsJay1

Marcon said:

EsJay1 said:

tightauldgit said:

I'd say you write a polite email to the HR team and CC in your old boss (and possibly the accounts team if you have it) just set out the issue again - that you still haven't been paid your expenses for Claim Ref: XXXXXXX and can they please inform you when you will receive those funds. It could be that they've already actioned it and just waiting for a payment cycle to come round, or it could be that someone is on holiday. But at least that way all the relevant people are on the one set of comms. 

I personally don't think there is any point in a letter before action this side of Christmas, as being reasonable this time of year a lot of stuff doesn't get done, people are missing, things get missed. It depends how important the money is to you but I don't think it's too crazy to wait a month or even two to be paid by a business. 

I'd give them 60 days  from when you were supposed to be paid and a reminder or two on the above email and then send a letter before action. 

I'll try this approach. I'll wait till the new year before sending off a letter before action. Thank you

This is all getting a bit heavy handed.

It's annoying that your expenses haven't been paid, but you are letting yourself get very wound up when in truth they are only a few weeks overdue at a particularly busy time of year for any business (and a particularly expensive one for most of us, so yes, I do sympathise, not least in terms of being irritated - I would be, too!). 

What's wrong with ACAS? If necessary, their Early Conciliation Procedure should crack it without any cost to you and with much less aggro than going the 'legal' route: https://tell.acas.org.uk 

Before going through ACAS, I want to try informal approaches first. Before I do anything official.
My irritation with the situation lies in the fact that companies are too quick to take money from people and extremely slow to return it - it’s the principle really. 

EsJay1

SiliconChip said:

From the number of teams there are it sounds like the employer is quite a large one so it's likely that there is no way to circumvent the payment cycle, so I would expect that your expenses will be processed and paid in the next cycle, presumably somewhere around December 18th (maybe a bit sooner if they do their payroll run early for Christmas).

Expenses payments run every week, whereas payroll runs once a month. So they’ve had a few opportunities now to process the payment. 

MalMonroe

EsJay1 said:

Marcon said:

EsJay1 said:

tightauldgit said:

I'd say you write a polite email to the HR team and CC in your old boss (and possibly the accounts team if you have it) just set out the issue again - that you still haven't been paid your expenses for Claim Ref: XXXXXXX and can they please inform you when you will receive those funds. It could be that they've already actioned it and just waiting for a payment cycle to come round, or it could be that someone is on holiday. But at least that way all the relevant people are on the one set of comms. 

I personally don't think there is any point in a letter before action this side of Christmas, as being reasonable this time of year a lot of stuff doesn't get done, people are missing, things get missed. It depends how important the money is to you but I don't think it's too crazy to wait a month or even two to be paid by a business. 

I'd give them 60 days  from when you were supposed to be paid and a reminder or two on the above email and then send a letter before action. 

I'll try this approach. I'll wait till the new year before sending off a letter before action. Thank you

This is all getting a bit heavy handed.

It's annoying that your expenses haven't been paid, but you are letting yourself get very wound up when in truth they are only a few weeks overdue at a particularly busy time of year for any business (and a particularly expensive one for most of us, so yes, I do sympathise, not least in terms of being irritated - I would be, too!). 

What's wrong with ACAS? If necessary, their Early Conciliation Procedure should crack it without any cost to you and with much less aggro than going the 'legal' route: https://tell.acas.org.uk 

Before going through ACAS, I want to try informal approaches first. Before I do anything official.
My irritation with the situation lies in the fact that companies are too quick to take money from people and extremely slow to return it - it’s the principle really. 

Actually, Acas isn't all that official - or scary. You can phone them to ask for advice, without any obligation. Don't even have to give them your name if you don't want to. And as Marcon says above, their early conciliation process is easy and free. 

It's not just the principle here, either, you want your money back. And that's understandable. 

Marcon

EsJay1 said:

Marcon said:

EsJay1 said:

tightauldgit said:

I'd say you write a polite email to the HR team and CC in your old boss (and possibly the accounts team if you have it) just set out the issue again - that you still haven't been paid your expenses for Claim Ref: XXXXXXX and can they please inform you when you will receive those funds. It could be that they've already actioned it and just waiting for a payment cycle to come round, or it could be that someone is on holiday. But at least that way all the relevant people are on the one set of comms. 

I personally don't think there is any point in a letter before action this side of Christmas, as being reasonable this time of year a lot of stuff doesn't get done, people are missing, things get missed. It depends how important the money is to you but I don't think it's too crazy to wait a month or even two to be paid by a business. 

I'd give them 60 days  from when you were supposed to be paid and a reminder or two on the above email and then send a letter before action. 

I'll try this approach. I'll wait till the new year before sending off a letter before action. Thank you

This is all getting a bit heavy handed.

It's annoying that your expenses haven't been paid, but you are letting yourself get very wound up when in truth they are only a few weeks overdue at a particularly busy time of year for any business (and a particularly expensive one for most of us, so yes, I do sympathise, not least in terms of being irritated - I would be, too!). 

What's wrong with ACAS? If necessary, their Early Conciliation Procedure should crack it without any cost to you and with much less aggro than going the 'legal' route: https://tell.acas.org.uk 

Before going through ACAS, I want to try informal approaches first. Before I do anything official.

Completely agree with you - but there were so many barrack room lawyers advocating hopelessly premature 'action' I wanted to ensure you had a viable alternative if you were swayed by them, particularly as you were already referring to 'being scammed' when the delay was simply a couple of weeks.

EsJay1 said:

My irritation with the situation lies in the fact that companies are too quick to take money from people and extremely slow to return it - it’s the principle really. 

Ring them every day and ask politely when you can expect payment.