First pay back from maternity was zero!!

-daydreamer-

Hello there wondered if anymore had any advice or wisdom for me. 

My maternity pay finished on the 22nd June, I Returned to work the week commencing 1st July as my manager had already completed the June Rotas so I just had the last week of june as unpaid maternity leave.

My first shift was 3rd July. My contract is 25 hours. I worked these for the first 2 weeks of July, and the Week commencing 15th I had holiday. My cutoff for wages is 15th of the month. 

At the end of the month I naively expected my full pay minus the adjustments for June (my one week unpaid maternity) however it was £0.

The only thing I can think of is the manager putting me down as KIT days so I hadn't triggered as actually being back to payroll. This has obviously left me struggling as my maternity pay was £700 in June and won't get paid wages again until the end of August. 

Also overall I'll be worse off as I get some top up from UC and my wages will all come next month so show on one statement and therefore only disregard the work allowance once rather than twice. 

It's rather frustrating and stressful so wondered if anyone knows if your employer has a duty to try and help or anything they can do to east the finacial burden. or even if UC can split the next payment into 2. Pretty sure I know the answer and I just have to grin and bear it until next month. 

Many thanks, sorry ots long wanted to make it as detailed as possible. 

On-the-coast

Well your employer has a duty to pay you in accordance with your contract, and if they've made a major mistake they have a duty to make corrections as soon as feasible (i.e. you shouldn't have to wait until next months payroll).  Have you talked to your HR or payroll people (if your employer is big enough to have such groups).

-daydreamer-

The company is definitely big enough, it's a well known supermarket, we don't have access to payroll or HR though, it has to all go through our line managers. My store manager was on holiday last Thursday when it happened as was my area manager which didn't help. The assistant manager was great and the covering area manager was looking into it but haven't heard anything since.

I'd assume they'd usually have a duty of care but as it seems like a genuine mistake or misunderstanding about how the KIT days work, my manager obviously didn't release the detrimental effect it'd have by processing it that way. 

Thankyou for your help though, I'll chase it up again tomorrow as I think my manager is back then!

Savvy_Sue

But even if they were KIT days, wouldn't you be paid for them?

Is nothing clear from your payslip? 

-daydreamer-

My payslip showed nothing, no pay no deductions, just like I didn't exist. Fortunately they've managed to pull something together and paid me £475 of my pay into my bank today, and luckily a uniform grant I applied for also came in so it's all a little less stressful now!

Grumpy_chap

-daydreamer- said:

At the end of the month I naively expected my full pay minus the adjustments for June (my one week unpaid maternity) however it was £0.

Did you get "paid" for the end of July, but the amount happens to have been zero?
You got a payslip and that showed your gross salary and then various deductions which came to a zero (or negative) balance, so you ended up with no actual pay.
There could be anomalies with tax codes or such like.

OR, did you not get paid as you had not been re-entered to payroll?
No payslip, so no pay at all to show anywhere.

As an aside, why was the week at the end of June unpaid maternity?
Could you have taken annual leave to cover that period?  You would normally accrue annual leave while on maternity so could have a surplus to use up.

I also understand that KIT days are paid and not unpaid.

-daydreamer-

No my payslip was fully blank, showed my tax YTD etc but nothing else, no pay, no deductions just basically a blank payslip.

My manager had already put it down as that without realising, I didn't want to be a pain and change it so it was just easier if I had it as unpaid. Holidays do accrue and I'm still owed 3 days from last year that seem to be missing from my entitlement too. Our KIT days are Paid but in arrears like our holiday pay I'm guessing! 

It'll be interesting to see what my payslip is next month! 

chrisbur

-daydreamer- said:

No my payslip was fully blank, showed my tax YTD etc but nothing else, no pay, no deductions just basically a blank payslip.

Bit strange that.  Unless you are on a non-cumulative tax code there should have been a tax rebate if no pay was entered.  
Or someone has set you to dormant.