P45 issued and Cancer

[EachandEveryone]

Just out of the blue today. Could it be a mistake? I’ve been a nurse for 23 years and love my job and have a good relationship with the team. I have been off sick with cancer treatment which has been rough. I managed to go back for six months this year and had to go off sick again for more chemo in May. My ssp ended on 11th November and days later I get a p45 in the post. What would have triggered that? As far as I am aware my job is waiting for me when I am better with adjustments. I’ve not heard any different and I have kept up to date with my sick notes etc.

does anyone have any experience in this field?

thanks

I agree it must be an error. Contact HR soon as they’re in the office and find out. Otherwise, you would definitely be able to look at a claim for unlawful dismissal.

Surely if your employment was being terminated, your manager would have spoken to you. I know nine would. So hopefully it's just an error.

Yes my manager has emailed hr asking them to correct it and ensure I keep my payroll number,access to the internet etc. What a blooming cock up Im only meeting them all for lunch next week imagine if it was for real?

Glad it’s sorted, but my word how insensitive

I am in a similar position in that I am being treated for cancer and I work for the NHS. I was off for 6 months between the end of June and the end of December. I returned to work on phased return in January, then I used saved up annual leave to reduce my hours by one day a week for a while, before going back permanently on reduced hours. I haven't had to take any more sick leave yet, luckily.

Your situation doesn't sound right to me. Check your Trust's sickness policy. I believe the regulations are the same for all NHS trusts but there may be some local differences.

You also need to check through any communications you have received from your line management, occupational health or HR regarding your sickness, and think carefully about whether you have done everything you need to have done and whether you have done anything you should not have done.

If you are sure that you have acted appropriately and that you have not received any communications about this, and you have checked right through your Trust's sickness policy and there is nothing in there to explain the P45, then query it with HR in the first instance and contact your union rep for assistance.

I have been incredibly lucky in the support and help I have had from my department (corporate, not clinical), and I know that other people may not have as much support, but I am sure that, based on the information you have given us so far, this is not the correct procedure. Hopefully it is just an error.

You said everywhere. Maybe in your experience but that absolutely isn’t the norm, including the NHS (biggest employer in the UK).

Well HR told my boss that P45’s don’t come in the post anymore they are online. Well that’s weird as I have it on paper in three parts. They also said I’m still there on the system and that I have to call the pay office to find out what went wrong.

thanks everyone and here’s to the immunotherapy doing its thing in the New Yesr. It’s been two years now and I need to be fit for Glastonbury.

Yes it's a payroll error but your line manager or hr need to contact them to rectify it, and ensure you're still in the system and are being paid .

Just a thought OP, I’m delighted it’s a cock up not a conspiracy but make sure things are put back exactly as they should be. I’m thinking specifically of your length of service and pensions. A lot of the processes will rely on automatic updates, pension in particular. And any accrued holiday entitlement. You have a legitimate right to be furious here it’s terrible duty of care.

When you don’t know whether something is a cock up or a conspiracy, it’s probably a cock up.

Speak to HR as it’s almost certainly an admin error triggered by your sick pay ending. If they wanted to dismiss you, they would have at least gone through the motions to avoid a legal challenge or tribunal.

I have worked in HR and seen this happen. For absolutely no reason our payroll officer took 3 people off sage and issued p45s, we can only put it down to her having a bad day and getting mixed up.

Please make sure that this won't affect your long service benefits. Check that you will be reinstated with the same payroll number as this is usually linked to those benefits and if it changes then it's more likely that further fuck ups will occur with benefits.

It must have caused you a lot of stress . I hope you get an apology.

OP what a load of unnecessary stress. It's got to be a mistake - managers not knowing what they're doing are the worst. Here's hoping this goes away quickly and that you'll indeed be fit for Glastonbury next year.

So glad to hear it was a mistake OP. Similar thing happened to me years ago - more than 25 years ago to be exact, and I still remember that sick feeling when I opened the letter. My then DH was a student so I was the only earner and we had 2 children - although I wasn't ill like you are, which much make it much worse I realise - and I wasn't in the NHS. I had to wait until the offices were open after New Year and then I rang. By then I had sort of worked out what must have happened. A colleague with the same (fairly unusual) surname had left to move area, so they had mixed me up with her. What a mistake though!

Have you ever done any other work for them? Bank shifts etc? I freaked out a few years ago when the same thing happened to me. It turned out a few years previously I had covered another ward to do some admin (literally 2 days) but they had created a zero hours contract for me. If these are then unused for x years they 'terminate' the contract and send a P45. Really freaked me out for a bit!

I'm head of payroll, this is absolutely not standard practice at all. What should happen is a form is provided stating why no more SSP is due and this is for you to take to claim UC. You will still be accruing annual leave while on sick and your other employment benefits still apply too - continuous employment etc.

I have done bank in the past but it can’t be connected to that it has to be the SSP as it finished five days before I got the P45

I would imagine that the system they are using hasn't worked as it should've done to suppress the P45.

When I worked in payroll (not NHS admittedly) once there had been no payments for a while on someone's account it triggered an automatic p45 which was sent out to make sure people had up to date tax documents. It's pretty close after your SSP ended but I imagine something similar may have happened, it'll just be a clerical error as your boss has confirmed it wasn't meant.

HR bod here. I can only imagine this is a very bad admin error on HRs part. No one would dismiss an employee like this deliberately.

Glad it’s all sorted! What a stress though!

Just a thought @EachandEveryone but have you checked the pay number on the P45 is for your substantive post?
Could it be that someone has terminated your bank post as you’ve not done bank work for a while?
I hope your treatment and recovery goes well.

I had something similar a few years ago. Randomly my payslip was marked 'leaver' and a few days later the P45 arrived. Turns out someone else in the same Trust with the same name was the person who had actually left. Piss up and brewery spring to mind 🙄

Stress you don't need for sure.

Definitely an error. (Seen now it's being sorted). However it's an awful, stressful thing to happen, especially when you are ill.

HR NHS person here. No, this is not how it's done so sounds like an admin error. Get the RCN to contact HR first thing and you let your manager know too so it xan be dealt with. It's a dreadful thing to happen.
Good luck with your treatment.