AIBU to expect a take home pay of roughly £920 from an annual salary of £11,745?

[AlohaMolly]

A month ago, I took a new job that paid around £700 more annually than my previous job. More money on paper and also in practice because of the difference in commute. The annual salary was £11,745. Ive just been paid £787 for my first month of work and I can’t figure out how that works? I absolutely gutted as it’s roughly £150 less a month than I was earning before. Have I been really stupid? I asked about the annual salary, not the monthly one and did some rough calculations based on the NIC I paid in my last job. I feel like such a fool, this job was supposed to better my life.

It sounds like pp have said with working 39 weeks. I work 22.5 hours a week 39 weeks of the year so salary is dividied by 12.

It’s not unusual for the 1st pay on a new job to be lower. This has to do with the calculations done by HMRC. The following month this should corrected on your pay.

I'm a ta my pro rata salary is 13k a year I work 30hrs I've got 8 years experience so towards the higher pay grade and I take home about 900 a month, the pay is not great but most of us do it for the job satisfaction, is this your first ta job? why are you unhappy with the job is it anything anyone can help with.
There's a lot of people on this thread who don't understand how tas are paid

It’s not tax it’s pro rats rate I bet

All ya post salaries are advertised as annual salararird but are then pro rats afterwards

If you started your new job in the same tax month (6th to 5th) as you left your old job, then you would have received some if not all or most of your ‘tax free pay’ with the old job. Incorrect tax code is another option. Did you gave your new employer your P45 & or completed a starter checklist?

Tax, national insurance, pensions etc etc maybe not tax as it’s below the threshold but there’s a number of deductions.. AIBU Yes it you’re HMRC the robbing bastards

Payroll will have cut off date usually a week before payday, so you could have only been paid 3 weeks

I also think you are being paid for 39 weeks and they have then divided it equally over 52 weeks. So I think it's pro rata. Plus they will be taking off your pension contributions.

I’m a TA and am paid for 43 weeks per year as you work 39 weeks but get 4 weeks holiday.

Also I earn 14500 a year but do 32 hours a week.

You will more than likely get your official contract, through the post, in a few weeks time, so check the calculations - it should go roughly as follows :-
(I think the vagueness on the salary and paid weeks will be due to the grade and point on payscale you have been appointed on - ie grade 2 scale point 4 etc so check this - it will be specified in the contract)
I do payroll and contracts in a school - as PP have said - the salary calculation is complicated. It takes into account paid weeks (39 in this case) plus paid days of holiday (pro-rata according to your hours ) plus our LA pays more depending how many years service you have too, so that’s an added factor - and then divided accordingly for how many hours you are contracted to work ( a TA contract is usually 32.5 FT) and then the pay is equated so you receive 12 equal monthly payments, in theory!
You usually have to sign up for the LGPS pension, before deductions are taken from your salary. Did you complete a form for this when you were appointed?
Our LA has an online portal for payslips - can you log on and check it?
Won’t repeat what others have said, but I’d have asked you for your P45 at the point of doing all the ‘new starter’ admin, DBS check and ID and address confirmation, references, bank details form and so on - and that would have had you on the correct tax code from the outset.

I can 99% say you started partway through their accounting period.
That’s the most logical explanation.

Check your payslip and you can see if they have the wrong tax code or maybe any deductions?

The most logical is defo the annual salary is being pro rats

It’s same with every TA post advertised

Yes there’s annual salary but the actual salary is less and what op has picked up is exactly what she would be expected to get once it’s been pro rata

@shabbalabba

Why are TA's paid so little!!?? In Ireland you would be paid 25k to START!!

Wow, that is amazing!!They obviously don't value TAs in England. Smh

One of my jobs is the same pay and that is roughly the same I get paid each month. I think maybe you are not getting the personal allowance so it will be the tax code. I take the personal allowance with the other job.

@freedaym

You are paid 'term-time' only. So this academic year, you'll only be paid for another ~15 weeks. If that is then going to be spread out over the remaining months until September, you'd get less each month than if you'd worked since September

No annual salaries are divided by 12 so starting mid year has no difference.

It does in the Local Authority I work in! I started as a TA mid-year and got less until the summer break because annual leave entitlement is annualised.

It sounds like you're working in a school with a 39 week a year job, which means you've likely been put into the pension scheme automatically.
You can get it back though if you contact your School Business Manager/ Payroll within a couple of days of your pay date as it gives them time to adjust things before month end

Yum

I was on the wrong tax code when I started working in a school. I bypassed HR and spoke directly to HMRC and it was sorted quickly.

Most likely wrong tax code? Happened to me then in next payslip I got extra. Also any tax owed you will be given back at end of year but that doesn't help when you need it now i know. X

If op is on mw won't that go up soon?.in April?

Your salary divided by 12 equals £978.75 pm.
There will be NI but no tax payable as it's under the £12,570 threshold. You may have deductions for a contributory pension scheme but you don't mention that.
If you started the job part way through the company's monthly wage calculation cycle, then you may have received a pro rata rate and your next month's money will show the full amount less NI.

The 4 week cycle is £903.46 less NI.

The pay for 26.25 hours a week would work out at a minimum annual salary of £11,795 which is based on working 39 weeks of the year.

Could it be Pro Rata that the salary is based on? Just a thought. Otherwise, I would think "emergency tax". HMRC always tax first and they don't ask questions later. It's up to you to ask the questions!

If you're not making any pension contributions then your net monthly salary should be £958 per month.

If your pay period covered 28 Feb to 25 (or 24) March, that will explain some of the discrepancy but not all of it.

The only other causes will be as pp have said, you're on the wrong tax code - but don't worry, once corrected, you will get back what you should have received this month - or you've been autoenrolled onto a pension scheme.

Again, if you don't want to make pension contributions you can opt out and you can usually claim back any contributions you've made provided you opt out within a certain time frame. Though you should think carefully before opting out - your pension contributions will lower how much tax you pay, and your employer will also be paying in - so you'll lose those benefits if you opt out.