to want an answer NOW about whether my maternity pay has been messed up?

[paperdoll]

I think I may have been overpaid because of a mistake by the payroll administrators that our company uses. I had all my maternity pay in a lump sum, supposedly, at the start - as usual. This meant I was overtaxed, so tax rebates followed on what would have been my normal paydays for the next couple of months - again, as usual. Then this month there was another sum, which I assumed was another rebate until my payslip arrived! It is coded as OMP and SMP - I think it's duplicate maternity pay, sent in error.

The problem is that although I contacted work straight away, and followed it up over a few days, it's taking ages to get an answer. How hard can it be for them to check this? Even if they don't see it as important that I am being sorely tempted every hour to spend it all on baby clothes, nail polish and gin, surely they ought to get their skates on and find out if they've mistakenly tossed away £1000 of their own money? aargh.

TBH I guess I am just disappointed because for a couple of days I was allowed to think that it might not be so hard to manage on maternity pay after all, which was very cheering. I daydreamed about all the cool stuff I would be able to get for the wee one (I wouldn't really spend it on myself), but now I have to accept that it is almost certainly not my money. boo hoo.

Hate the stupid payroll and HR people, who are patronising and unresponsive!

OMP is ordinary maternity pay (as in the first 6wk lump sum) then SMP is standard maternity pay (either £100 or so or 90% of your pay if less than SMP rate).......so from the sounds of it, if you've got another lump sum of £1000 then its not yours.....even if you got paid monthly your maternity pay should only be around £420 a month on SMP

if that makes sence????? so you've been given around an extra £600!!!!

just to clarify YANBU.....i'd not be happy if i'd thought the money was mine but then realised it wasn't!!!

thanks glaskham - I just wish they would hurry up and confirm it! It is quite hard to wait in suspense while they keep saying "We'll get back to you by this afternoon" and then not bothering ... it wouldn't be so bad if I was on my normal salary but we are really stretched right now while I am on maternity leave. It's like having £1000 pounds dangled in front of me, taunting me.

Also, I'm wondering just how long it would have taken them to spot the mistake (assuming it is a mistake), had I not pointed it out to them. My colleague tells me that her pay has been wrong every single month since returning from mat leave and it's a constant battle to get them to sort it out. We work for a very large company too, so it's not like there is just some poor little person wrestling with the figures in the back room of a small business.

waah! I want an answer! I want to give back this bloody money, it's all I can think about while it's still sitting in my account!

sorry ... I am not normally obsessed with money like this. Just, it would transform the next several months, Christmas, etc if only it WAS ours. I really hate the fact that I've been forced to think about the difference it would make, and then will probably have to give it back. And I really, REALLY hate the fact that HR don't seem bothered about just simply checking it for me to end the torture. It would presumably be the work of moments for one of their many staff.

OMP could be Occupational Maternity Pay, rather than Ordinary. Which is an extra amount companies sometimes give over and above the statutory (SMP). Do you know your company's maternity pay rules?

I hope you can get this sorted out. When I was on maternity, they paid me salary and maternity for 2 months. Unfortunately because of what I do, I couldn't pretend I didn't realise

I find it hard to believe, with all the software and system checks on payroll software, that they can cock something up so monumentally.

paperdoll - if you gave me some specifics (CAT me perhaps?) I could give you an idea of what you should have been paid so far.

YOu are certainly not unreasonable to demand an answer.

The other thing is - if such a cock up occurs - they really should adjust it in that months pay, (even if it means going backwards) instead of trying to adjust in later months because it does cock up tax and NI.

you dont work for the nhs do you? i had so may problems with mine, they had underpaid me and then in my last month over paid me, i hadnt noticed as i just assumed my stat mat had gone in till i had a letter telling me that as i was due to start back at work in jan any way i had to go 2 months with no pay to pay it all back. tossers.

then we just found out that a few of us have been underpaid for the past 2 years and now i dont know how that will affect what mat pay i did get during my leave and if i will get it back now as i was on the wrong pay band. (i had only just qualified when i found out i was preg so didnt know i was on the wrong payband till now)

My company (top tier US bank) messed up my maternity pay so badly that I ended up getting the final £400 they owed me 19 months after my last day at work. I knew they'd done it wrong so was determined they wouldn't get away with it, even though if I'd charged them for my time at my normal hourly rate I would have spent far more than £400 sorting it out!

Just keep caling - HR can tend to think that you'll stop calling if they ignore you, so you have to make it more of a nuisance for them to field your calls than ignore them- by the end I was phoning my HR contact and her boss on a daily basis (this was ater I'd had to work out myslef what they'd doen wrong and send them my spreadsheet)

Good luck

YANBU - I can understand your frustration.
If i were you, I woulod stick the money you have been overpaid in a high interest account. That way, you less likely to spend it and you'll earn a few quid - after all it is there mistake! Soon as you find out how much you need to pay it back, then the money is there to do so.

Ooh this happened to me- although mine was an underpayment, compounded by the fact that I worked for a cash strapped charity at the time! Another time I had been overpaid since returning from work part time- pro rate acalculated incorrectly. We were really strapped at that point and it was worrying, I couldnt cope with the lying though and went straight to them- they decided that rather than claim it back they'd count it as an early pay rise - this was pre-charity i hasten to add!! Dh's 'standard' company payrise came to much less than mine. Honesty does pay- sometimes literally.

Can you pop the money into a separate, ahrder to access acount? One of those minor saving accounts and don't ask for a cashpoint card? best case scenario you get interest, worstc ase scenario you won't end up spending it in a cash-poor panic.

prufrock that is shocking!!!!

Scarebear - you are absolutely entitled to receive money that you were underpaid on.

In the UK SMP is paid at 90% of your usual weekly salary for 6 weeks. Thereafter you should be paid 33 weeks at £112.75 per week.

I dont understand why employers have a problem with this - they receive a proportion of this money back from the Government. It's really quite straightforward.