To demand my money back from work?

[Lolabean679]

I'm currently on sick leave at the moment so only in receipt of SSP. At the start of the year I signed up to a work benefit of an extra 5 days holiday a year which I pay for (£30 per month taken prior to tax).

Once I went onto SSP the payments stoped as they "couldn't take the payments from sick pay" - so far so good. However after 2 months off sick, they have suddenly taken an amount of £229 (which is over half of my sick pay) without informing me. My line manager was off for a week so I couldn't get in touch with work to find out what had happened and all HR would tell me is that it's in the terms and conditions and they only take the amount work say (outsourced hr department)

I have tried to get these t&c's but as it's all done through work logins I can't get them.

So my aibu is, am I within my rights to demand this money back? Surely if the can't take the small £30 payments, why can they suddenly take over half my wages?

(So as bit to drip feed, I have handed my notice in and have less than 2 week left, so in essence I'm paying myself as I have lots of unused holidays. Surly just take the holidays off my entitlement. This has left me short for rent and other essentials I have budgeted for with 2 young children at the start of the holidays)

Prepared to accept the fact I am BU.

Very nasty sugarPlumFairly. They are only asking for what they are contractually owed. You have no idea what caused the OP to originally take the sick leave. Regardless of sickness leave, they are entitled to their holiday pay.

Jesus christ, if I'd had that money deducted from what I presume is already a significantly reduced pay packet I'd be wanting to know why and whether I could get it back too!

Bumping in the hope that someone more in the know can help, op - but I'm sure there are rules to what employers can and can't take from your paypacket.

Have you given your notice and have they processed you as a leaver?
If so, I bet they've taken the money to settle the additional leave 'bill' and when you get your final wage from them I bet they will pay you what holidays you've accrued but not used, plus the week you 'bought'
That's how it works in the company i work for.
Either way, they should have told you this would happen.

Without being too identifying, what sector / business are are you in? They will have an absolute immediate responsibility to look after you when they have placed you in a vulnerable position.

Can you work out what the £229 actually equates to? You've said the normal deduction is £30 but I'm assuming you've rounded up to the nearest whole figure, so does the £229 actually equate to x number of months worth of the holiday deduction? If you can work out how many months it relates to then we can probably work out what they have attempted to do here.

They can actually deduct from SSP- it's treated the same as wages so employers are allowed to make deductions against it. The question is whether it's a legitimate deduction but we'd need to work out exactly what the £229 is for to determine that.

I think bluemascara is prob right that they've quickly deducted the balance owed to make sure you're definitely not overpaid on leaving and they'll pay you all the holiday owed when you leave. A bit of common sense/thought might have lead them to conclude they could just offset one against the other next month, but I've worked in payroll a long time and have had many colleagues who were not blessed with huge amounts of common sense!

Well 229 divided by 30 is 7 which would take us to the end of the year if you include the 2 missed months (well 7.6 but I wonder if you gave a rounded amount for ease!) so have they charged you till the end of the year?

I think pp are right and it's case they charge the full year then in your final pay they will pay you back for the weeks brough but used. I think you need a copy of the terms of this annual leave deal ASAP.

Doesn't help in the short term though I know.

lola just to mention something about bank holidays while on sick pay/ mat pay - you cannot be on two kinds of leave at once, so if you are on sick leave or mat leave during a bank holiday then it gets added onto to your annual leave (maybe you can get paid for it or something) afterwards.

I've emailed HR this morning and asked for a breakdown of the t&c's, also asked why they couldn't take 30 per month but can suddenly take 229 in one go and asked why they couldn't have just removed the holidays from my allowance.

For reference I work in telecommunications in the corporate sector (without giving too much away!) I've rounded up the payments as I couldn't get into my online pay slips to check the exact amounts. (Seems to be a regular thing...)

I assume I'm being treated as a leaver but when I spoke to them on the phone they kept saying "when you come back" which didn't register at the time. Although I'm sure all the department are separate as when I asked about holiday they told me to call back and speak with another department so maybe payroll haven't been informed yet...

(Also, that department couldn't tell me my holiday entitlement, my line manager has to email them to get the records and then inform me that way. Which is frustrating as I couldn't get in touch with anyone till yesterday )

Quick update, I'm being given the run around from payroll. They basically have no idea what's going on and have given me yet another number/department to call....

Ah what a pain in the ass!!!
Stand firm... they are putting you in a position of financial hardship. I'm sure they wouldn't want the bad publicity if this fell into the wrong hands!