Any Salary Sacrifice Experts Out There?

[TheTruthAboutLove]

Good Morning,

Following a tumultuous two and a half years at my company, I've finally been offered what I consider to be my dream role. And I'm leaving, 100% I'm leaving regardless of their blackmailing attempts to make me stay.

I have a car on a salary sacrifice scheme which was in contract until 2021. I have contacted the salary sacrifice scheme for a settlement figure, which they keep changing depending on date. However I now have the following problems.

1. I have requested a copy of the contract I signed four times, each e-mail is ignored. My work contract of employment has zero in it about deductions from wages.
   
2. I have requested a breakdown of the termination fee three times, e-mails are ignored
   
3. My employer have told me they are going to take my entire January salary as a settlement figure for this car - meaning I will have worked the whole of January for basically free
   
   I just wanted to know if this was allowed? They haven't offered any option in regards to paying the fee over two or three months, and I thought salary sacrifice meant you had to at least be paid your basic £8.21 per hour for the month.
   
   Any advice would be great.

[ApacheEchidna]

It is not allowed for an employer to deduct so much from your salary that you are put into serious financial hardship. They have a duty of care to you not to put you at risk in that way. If you have a contractual debt then they need to show evidence that the debt is reasonable, and agree a reasonable repayment schedule with you to pay it back however long it takes. I am not an expert so don't know if there are specific definitions for the border-line between reasonable and unreasonable - I suspect that an absolute minimum would be that they cannot deduct so much as to make your take-home pay be less than what you would take home if you were on minimum wage.

The status of the car contract might depend on to what extent the car was necessary for you to do your job. If you could have performed your job perfectly well without the car, and the car was just a perk, then that is different from if the car was effectively provided as a means for you to do your job.

[nerdsville]

Well for a start the above advice is utter nonsense. An employer can deduct literally your entire final pay and leave you with nothing, as long as they're contractually/legally entitled to do so e.g. deducting overtaken holiday or training fees owed based on a proper training agreement etc.

Are you sure the early termination fee is also a salary sacrifice deduction? I'd possibly expect it to be a net deduction as it's a specific exit fee not a normal monthly payment under the agreement, so I would find this out for certain.

The NMW rules don't apply to certain types of deductions and, generally, allowable deductions from final pay would be exempt. It would be considered an exempt deduction due to employee conduct - the conduct here being that you resigned while owing money under the signed lease agreement.

[flowery]

Yes deductions from final pay where the reason for the money being owed is your decision to resign would normally be exempt for the purposes of NMW calculations.

It's not clear from your post whether you are disputing the amount of the early termination figure or the fact that your employer intend to deduct it from final pay?

[TheTruthAboutLove]

I’ve finally had a copy of the contract, and I completely agree with the early termination fee. I had no idea entering into it I would have such a good job opportunity elsewhere and will always pay what I owe.

I just wasn’t particularly happy with it being deducted entirely from my final salary - I don’t know many people who could afford not to have a wage for a month. I had naively thought my employer may take part of the fee and allow me to keep some of my salary and pay it off over time but I doubt it.

Thank you for your advice. I’ll pay it from my final salary and read the terms and conditions before doing anything in future!