Back pay after retiring

philstephen

Took a long while, but having retired late April 2024, I received a few hundred pounds yesterday into my bank account. This was a back pay based on an increase from my former employer from 1 January 2024. It took ages for the pay settlement to be negotiated via collective bargaining. Employees still there didn't get it until late last year. It was a question of asking HR / Payroll for it having been recommended by other former colleagues. 

LightFlare

Apologies, but what is the question ?

philstephen

LightFlare said:

Apologies, but what is the question ?

It wasn't! Forums aren't just about asking questions. It's sharing details and might prompt some people to find about backdated pay rises they might have missed before leaving and then asking for them. 

Marcon

philstephen said:

LightFlare said:

Apologies, but what is the question ?

It wasn't! Forums aren't just about asking questions. It's sharing details and might prompt some people to find about backdated pay rises they might have missed before leaving and then asking for them. 

Also worth checking if the backdated pay has any impact on your pension...depending on your (former) employer and terms of employment, it could. 

The following is taken from the LGPS factsheet for employers. For info about how LGPS pensions are treated, read  https://lgpslibrary.org/assets/gas/scot/Pay%20award%20FAQs%20Scotland%20v1.0.pdf

If an employee leaves employment before the award is agreed, do we need to pay the award?

This is a question of employment law. In our view, you are not obliged to contact former employees to offer the pay award. However, if the former employee requests it, the pay award should be applied and arrears paid.

Grumpy_chap

Marcon said:

If an employee leaves employment before the award is agreed, do we need to pay the award?

This is a question of employment law. In our view, you are not obliged to contact former employees to offer the pay award. However, if the former employee requests it, the pay award should be applied and arrears paid.

That comment seems to be rather inequitable and I wonder whether it is correct.
If the employer is contractually obliged to make the payment to the former employee, that should hold true whether the former employee has kept up with appropriate trade press or not.

Marcon

Grumpy_chap said:

Marcon said:

If an employee leaves employment before the award is agreed, do we need to pay the award?

This is a question of employment law. In our view, you are not obliged to contact former employees to offer the pay award. However, if the former employee requests it, the pay award should be applied and arrears paid.

That comment seems to be rather inequitable and I wonder whether it is correct.
If the employer is contractually obliged to make the payment to the former employee, that should hold true whether the former employee has kept up with appropriate trade press or not.

Please don't selectively redact sections of my post in a way which could make it look as if I'm the one who said it! What I actually posted was:

Marcon said:

Also worth checking if the backdated pay has any impact on your pension...depending on your (former) employer and terms of employment, it could. 

The following is taken from the LGPS factsheet for employers. For info about how LGPS pensions are treated, read  https://lgpslibrary.org/assets/gas/scot/Pay%20award%20FAQs%20Scotland%20v1.0.pdf

If an employee leaves employment before the award is agreed, do we need to pay the award?

This is a question of employment law. In our view, you are not obliged to contact former employees to offer the pay award. However, if the former employee requests it, the pay award should be applied and arrears paid.

Grumpy_chap

Marcon said:

Grumpy_chap said:

Marcon said:

If an employee leaves employment before the award is agreed, do we need to pay the award?

This is a question of employment law. In our view, you are not obliged to contact former employees to offer the pay award. However, if the former employee requests it, the pay award should be applied and arrears paid.

That comment seems to be rather inequitable and I wonder whether it is correct.
If the employer is contractually obliged to make the payment to the former employee, that should hold true whether the former employee has kept up with appropriate trade press or not.

Please don't selectively redact sections of my post in a way which could make it look as if I'm the one who said it! What I actually posted was:

Marcon said:

Also worth checking if the backdated pay has any impact on your pension...depending on your (former) employer and terms of employment, it could. 

The following is taken from the LGPS factsheet for employers. For info about how LGPS pensions are treated, read  https://lgpslibrary.org/assets/gas/scot/Pay%20award%20FAQs%20Scotland%20v1.0.pdf

If an employee leaves employment before the award is agreed, do we need to pay the award?

This is a question of employment law. In our view, you are not obliged to contact former employees to offer the pay award. However, if the former employee requests it, the pay award should be applied and arrears paid.

I did not selectively quote with the intent to show it as your original quote - I thought if the thread is read as a whole, the origin was clear.
Apologies if that was not the case or caused any offence.

I still think that the comment seems inequitable.  If it is a matter of employment law as to whether the payments are dues, that should not vary between the (former) employee who asks for the money and the (former) employee who is unaware so does not ask for the money.

Savvy_Sue

But no employer is required to maintain contact with a former employee, surely? And sometimes people leave because they're moving house, or going travelling, and email addresses start bouncing back (if you even kept a personal email address on file).

and you definitely can't just pay the money into the last known bank account without making contact ... (Actually, we used to 'cull' our list of payees regularly, so chances are we wouldn't even have your details any more.)

So personally I think it's reasonable to have the 'ask and we'll pay it' policy.

In practice, we did make contact and pay it proactively. But it didn't happen often.

philstephen

Marcon said:

philstephen said:

LightFlare said:

Apologies, but what is the question ?

It wasn't! Forums aren't just about asking questions. It's sharing details and might prompt some people to find about backdated pay rises they might have missed before leaving and then asking for them. 

Also worth checking if the backdated pay has any impact on your pension...depending on your (former) employer and terms of employment, it could. 

The following is taken from the LGPS factsheet for employers. For info about how LGPS pensions are treated, read  https://lgpslibrary.org/assets/gas/scot/Pay%20award%20FAQs%20Scotland%20v1.0.pdf

If an employee leaves employment before the award is agreed, do we need to pay the award?

This is a question of employment law. In our view, you are not obliged to contact former employees to offer the pay award. However, if the former employee requests it, the pay award should be applied and arrears paid.

The pension I'm in which is a defined benefit scheme would be updated with any salary information from employers every July. So last done in July 2023 seeing as I retired in April 2024 and now drawing it down. Nothing in the way funding for the pension was taken out of the back pay the other day, just tax and NI.

Marcon

Savvy_Sue said:

But no employer is required to maintain contact with a former employee, surely? And sometimes people leave because they're moving house, or going travelling, and email addresses start bouncing back (if you even kept a personal email address on file).

and you definitely can't just pay the money into the last known bank account without making contact ... (Actually, we used to 'cull' our list of payees regularly, so chances are we wouldn't even have your details any more.)

So personally I think it's reasonable to have the 'ask and we'll pay it' policy.

In practice, we did make contact and pay it proactively. But it didn't happen often.

Making contact isn't quite the same as 'maintaining' contact - and backdated pay awards are usually done within a reasonably short space of time, so the employer would still have the 'last known' details available.

Pension scheme trustees face a much more difficult problem the whole time, especially with the infamous 'GMP equalisation' exercise. Some (by no means all) people who transferred out of a scheme decades ago could still be entitled to a 'top up' if they had a GMP and the scheme hadn't equalised benefits at the time of payment. Looking for someone after a gap of possibly 30+ years is a much trickier ask!

Savvy_Sue

Marcon said:

Savvy_Sue said:

But no employer is required to maintain contact with a former employee, surely? And sometimes people leave because they're moving house, or going travelling, and email addresses start bouncing back (if you even kept a personal email address on file).

and you definitely can't just pay the money into the last known bank account without making contact ... (Actually, we used to 'cull' our list of payees regularly, so chances are we wouldn't even have your details any more.)

So personally I think it's reasonable to have the 'ask and we'll pay it' policy.

In practice, we did make contact and pay it proactively. But it didn't happen often.

Making contact isn't quite the same as 'maintaining' contact - and backdated pay awards are usually done within a reasonably short space of time, so the employer would still have the 'last known' details available.

Pension scheme trustees face a much more difficult problem the whole time, especially with the infamous 'GMP equalisation' exercise. Some (by no means all) people who transferred out of a scheme decades ago could still be entitled to a 'top up' if they had a GMP and the scheme hadn't equalised benefits at the time of payment. Looking for someone after a gap of possibly 30+ years is a much trickier ask!

I agree that pension companies have a much harder task! When anyone gave me a new address at work, I gave them a list of people to notify: HMRC, DVLA and the pension!