Not been paid by work- is DH right?

[GotMooMilk]

I work a ‘proper’ job 3 days a week and one day a week I’m doing a project for a local university. I haven’t been paid for my uni work this month- should have had about £700 after tax. This is a lot of money and although we can afford the basics without it for Christmas it was being relied on for gifts and expenses.

I contacted uni finance team when payday came and went and was told there’s a 3 month backlog for paying expenses (essentially I complete a monthly form and am paid as expenses from that). I completed and submitted the form miles before the due date. I’ve asked my project lead to chase it up and he’s had a similar response.

DH says I should give them a week and then refuse to continue the project if I’m not being paid. I’m annoyed but don’t want to cut my nose off as I know I will be paid eventually and that money will be helpful. I also don’t know how to push the issue when I keep getting shrugs and ‘hopefully it’ll be resolved within 3 months’. What would you do?

Have you signed anything to agree to the 3 months wait? Otherwise I’d fight it. Just because they have a back log isn’t your fault, keep chasing and I’d stop working until paid up.

@Magenta65 no not at all!

I think universities are notoriously relaxed about paying part-timers in a timely way (or academics for ad hoc work). It seems to be part of the culture, so they probably won't understand why you're annoyed about it. Not that it's right, obviously, but I would just keep chasing politely and being the squeaky wheel.

I'd stop the work. It's not a complicated deal: do work, get paid. No pay -> no work.

I know I need to really. I’ve chased up again this time emailing finance directly rather than the finance person for the directorate.

Have you been blunt with them and explained you need it for Xmas presents for the kids?

Some universities are awful for paying business suppliers. I'm having issues with one at work just now, and they owe us thousands. I wouldn't mind, but I know that the goods we supply are used in research, and that research is funded by an outside body, and I know they've got the money in the budget. They are simply refusing to abide by our payment terms.

Some universities are dreadful at this. It really is unacceptable. It might be worth speaking to HR, would they give you an interest free 'loan' of the money to be repaid when they actually pay you? I know this can happen when there are salary issues but slightly confused that you are'expenses'

It soinds like this isn't a wage, but a refund of expenses. Either way, to suggest that it's OK to wait 3 months is outrageous. I'd take it higher, but not on your side, in relation to the team that manages expenses. I'd put it in writing. I'd make ut very clear that it is a refund of money you have spent (effectively you are funding the work).

Yes I'd say I can't,afford to fund the university and stop giving both my time.and my money for free.
Unbelievable.
No different if it's wages, it's just that it's a different contract and relationship.
I'd definitely find the most senior person in finance and make them aware. 3 months to get your money back is ridiculous and.taking the piss..
Rant over

You need to check what your contract says about pay. If it says you're being reimbursed expenses and that these will be paid in line with their standard policy or 3 months later then you shouldn't stop providing services as you will be in breach of contract.

But it's not expenses is it? Or is it? Are you an employee, PAYE? Or self employed, submitting an invoice.
I'd email your manager, finance and HR and ask for an advance until it's sorted.

What happened last month?
If it was on time last month, it seems strange that they've managed to build up a 3 month backlog in 4 weeks!

I bet that the issue is that your wage is being regarded as expenses. Someone somewhere within the university has probably thought that is the way to get payment to you under the radar. And now it's been shown as a rubbish decision. Finance will be treating your pay as no more or less important than say a £5 receipt for a train trip.

Essentially the way it sounds like it's set up you count as a freelancer and it counts as a business expense rather than 'wages' -

My H used to get this at Xmas with one client he used to do a lot of work for- he basically informed the stakeholder and downed tools- money was in his account 3 days later

I think I'd be blunt and say that contractually you are owed the money but you'll take a two thirds sub in the meantime!! Cheeky sods!!

In my experience it depends on the institution a lot. What I can say is that in the places I've worked, if you write an email saying that you are experiencing hardship that it is more likely to be expedited.

In the past community partnerships have nearly collapsed over this issue. The uni simply don't realise that the money is needed for someone's rent or bills, but assume them to be rich enough to live with a delay.

If you are being 'paid' as an expense, that's the wrong way to set this up and has likely caused this issue. Does this mean you're not paying tax or NI on this? What's the set up? You're clearly not an employee, an associate or on the staff bank. Are you self employed and doing it? So invoicing them? Are you a student?

I'm wondering if the project lead has set this up incorrectly and finance have realised, so are taking time to 'process' it because they are investigating it.

If it were me, I would also stop working, because I think the project lead has fucked up and you might have trouble getting future pay too.

Unfortunately not unusual with universities…
Whether you decide that you can cope with that or they are simply taking the mick is up to you really.

This is why I stopped freelancing. My private business account always paid on time but the schools (through county council) were awful and I’d have to chase 2-3 times and finally get paid 3-4 months late each time. Can’t be arsey or they stop using you and I liked the project. I ended up back in a permanent job.

Sorry the form I do is ‘fees and expenses’ so it’s the same department but I basically claim back the hours I work kind of like bank work if that makes sense as every month is different. It’s then PAYE and they take out NI and tax with a BR tax code. I got paid fine the first month but this month nothing. I’m going in circles- finance manager shrugging and apologising, phoning departments who give me email addresses who don’t reply to my email. Aaargh!

So you are PAYE.

This is quite an odd system for payment of what is essentially a temp worker or contractor. I work for a university and our contractors are paid monthly when they submit an invoice for work, though yes, it can take a few weeks for the payment itself to process from when the invoice is submitted and payment raised by finance. We also have temp workers who are hourly workers doing mostly admin tasks. They submit a time sheet weekly. It does take a weird long time sometimes to get set up in the system (was about 2 months once when I did it). But once you are set up, I think payment is weekly in response to the timesheet submission, and happens in a timely manner.

It's weird that you are filling out 'expenses' forms as we usually can only do this for very specific types of things and only if actually a member of staff. But payment usually takes a couple weeks, same as with contractors.

It is possible there is no money left in the account and they are trying to chase funds. Sometimes project pots run out of money and it takes time to shift money from one pot to another, but doesn't usually take 3 months. I think you need to push back on this and understand what the delay is. I'd be inclined to stop work until they sort their finances.

So they missed your hours when they did the payroll. The submission has presumably gone to HMRC now and they don’t want to go through the pain of correcting it.

We’ve had similar happen and what we do is give the employee a payment (based on what they should have received) and then put it through payroll the following month. So you get paid but it doesn’t show on your payslip until the following month. I would ask if they can do that.

The only problem with that is that e’ers NI is calculated on a monthly basis and you pay it on salary over the threshold (£1,048) so if your salary is usually under that threshold, in the month they put the missed hours through the payroll you might pay NI that otherwise wouldn’t have been due. We had one employee complain about that, so we paid them a bit more to make up for it.

@mindutopia they are withholding PAYE tax and NI, so she must be on the payroll, probably on a zero hours basis, so payroll staff would need her timesheet and would enter the number of hours worked and the hourly rate into the payroll software. This month maybe someone didn’t send her hours over in time so they entered 0 hours.

OP, did you get a payslip? You should have even if there was no actual payment.

Has your research project lead academic been in touch with finance? In my experience senior academics being very loud & demanding is what gets the attention of finance.