New job - getting paid

[daimbarsatemydogsbone]

I started a new job on 8th March. It's a monthly paid job, paid on or around 21st.
I didn't get paid on 21st, so asked why.
Apparently the cutoff for payroll is 7th, so I was never going to be paid - not that anyone thought to tell me.
What makes this worse is that they plan to pay the whole amount in April - 45 days after I start, and they will treat it as if it was all earned in April which will mean I will overpay NI.
I know this is all very first world - but I really don't see why I should lose out due to their ludicrous cutoff and refusal to process my pay in the period when it was earned, in accordance with the law.

@XelaM

You're badmouthing your new employer online. That's a terrible way to start any job. If you're identified, you will get fired.

Riiiiighht.

I am remaining polite and respectful - it's not their fault they don't know.

Surely you will only get a months wages though? If your cut off is the 7th then you’ll get paid from the 7th last month til the 7th this month and so on..

@XelaM

You're badmouthing your new employer online. That's a terrible way to start any job. If you're identified, you will get fired.

Aye, I'm quaking in my boots here.

Absolutely dreading a visit from the Mumsnet monitoring department.

Saying they have worked out that an anonymous posting about an unnamed employer me posting all about them and therefore I am fired.

In terms of timing and by way of explanation - there is usually a cut-off date imposed by the bank for bacs payments - I'm sure that's not 2 weeks but to add to that there are variations to our payroll every month and they all have to go through a process to be double-checked. We are small so we can get through
it in a couple of hours but some months require more time than others to sort out, and the payrun has to go on time regardless of how many variations you need to make, there can be no excuse.

OP can't be accused of bringing her employer into disrepute as she at no point names them or gives any hint that would allow them to be identified.

I used to be responsible for payroll processing in previous jobs and agree it should have been easily possible for them to get you onto the March pay run. They do sound spectacularly inefficient.

I am a Chief finance officer, and sorry that your shit employer did fuck all for you.

At the very least they should have advanced the net pay even if they couldn't get the calculation in.

March is a tricky month, especially if they were doing public sector backdated pay increases.

But this kind of computer says no behaviour is shoddy.

@daimbarsatemydogsbone

I wonder if HMRC will accept my word about my start date as proof - my employer plans to lump everything into April's pay so it will look as if it is pay for April - any payrollers know if start date goes over on RTI so I could prove (assuming they send the correct data which is far from certain!) I started in and was due pay for March?

Start date is part of the RTI data required

I’m NHS and this has literally never happened to me, even when I’ve started after payroll cut off. I’ve worked in several trusts and arms length bodies throughout my career. They can easily do a separate payroll run.

When the FPS (Full Payment Submission) is sent to HMRC it should contain all of your information including Start Date - presuming they input your actual start date, so you may be able to discuss with them once received.

HMRC can be a tad slow in updating records, and they may not provide you with a refund either and you might have to wait until end of tax year

I have not seen a request to refund an employee NI contributions in this type of situation

Cut off in my work is always around the 3rd of the month for payday on 23rd. They'll give you an advance though if you ask.

@YerAWizardHarry

Surely you will only get a months wages though? If your cut off is the 7th then you’ll get paid from the 7th last month til the 7th this month and so on..

This! Paid from your start date and month start date so the 8th - 7th. You hadn't actually earned anything before the cut off date so you wont over pay anything.

This is such bad practise.

And it’s VERY easy to set up a new starter on payroll.

If you were on my payroll OP I’d have ensured you were added and a two week cut off is utterly ridiculous.

@Merryoldgoat

This is such bad practise.

And it’s VERY easy to set up a new starter on payroll.

If you were on my payroll OP I’d have ensured you were added and a two week cut off is utterly ridiculous.

Surely it depends how many employees the company has when payroll cut off should be? A large national employer with 3000+ employees, some of whom are on timesheets, will need a couple of weeks to organise everything.

@SmellyOldOwls

Not really.

If there are that many staff the managers are responsible for collating and submitting to payroll via an agreed format.

File is uploaded to payroll.

New starters don’t tend to rock up unexpectedly. You can easily set up draft employees before their start date as they’ll have submitted the important info, get them to complete a New Starter form as part of boarding and get them on payroll same day.

If a company has thousands of employees they likely have a self service system where you provide much information yourself.

Payroll love to pretend it’s highly complex. It’s not. The programs do the donkey’s work. It’s just collating and inputting and with efficient processes you do not need 2 weeks to prepare.

V annoying.

I started a job 2 days after the cutoff but it was also a month before that payment, so not only did I receive only 2 days’ pay, I’d had to wait a month for that, then another month for a proper payday (so 2 months until a solid amount of bill money arrived).

There seems to be some confusion over cutoff vs pay periods. We are paid per calendar month on 21st of each month. So in April I will be paid for 8-31 March and all of April.

I wasn’t paid for March because payroll was “ locked” - the cutoff and no more data accepted on 7th

New starters don’t tend to rock up unexpectedly.
Exactly I was on 3 months notice from my last job so they had plenty of time to get ready, but didn’t.

@daimbarsatemydogsbone

New starters don’t tend to rock up unexpectedly. Exactly I was on 3 months notice from my last job so they had plenty of time to get ready, but didn’t.

I honestly think this is outrageous.

I accept that my payroll is much smaller than many (around 100) but I go out of my way to ensure everyone who can be included is. Paying people is one of the most important things I do.

Well I got paid - but my NI deduction makes no sense. It's between £50 - £200 more than any conceivable calculation could make it.
I've asked for a breakdown, but I am not optimistic given the experience so far.
Although based on this and other experiences I think I will soon be working somewhere else.

Our cut off is 10th for pay on around 25th. Can you ask for an advance against your pay?

I've changed jobs a few times in the past few years and this has literally never happened to me! I've never heard it happening to anyone, to be honest. I've worked in payroll before and we've put new starters through separately.

@Merryoldgoat Quite right. I am starting a new jobs in a couple of weeks and they already sent me all the new starter payroll forms weeks ago on email.

NI has recently changed. Might it have included your March pay at new rate?