Can anyone help, have I been paid wrong? Not received expected wages..

[Meercat9]

Can anyone help please! I started an apprenticeship in a school as a TA on the 8th Sept as this was the day that the new term started. I did however attend an inset day on the 5th. I’m expecting an equal amount each of over 12 months, which is on my contract. However, I’ve been paid just over £200 less today which doesn’t make any sense. I presumed this was because we started back 8 days into September. But I was expecting the amount on my contract regardless as it’s a annualised salary and meant to be the same each month. Is this right? I also haven’t been paid for attending the INSET day on the 5th. Which is meant to be a paid training day.

Double post edited

Wait for/ask about your pay slip. You may be on a BR tax code

I think you/the school have confused each other with the gross/net amount.
Our school does payslips electronically via a system so you need to check how you access it if it's the same for you.

People can only offer suggestions here as you haven't shared what your contract says. It is highly unlikely to have stated a net salary. NI and tax deductions generally kick in at c£12k but if you have another income source or have had another job previously in the year then you may be on a different tax code.
You need to check your contract for the amount - confirm it shows the gross amount and whether that is the FTE or has been pro-rated for working part of the year and part-time hours - and your payslip. You should be sent this or be able to access it via a portal so ask at school.

Your employer would not be able to tell you net pay. They don’t know your tax code, any student loans, attachment of earnings orders etc.

You need a payslip.

Ring the council who pay you if you can't get any answers at work. You will be paid a full month if contract says 1st September.

Yes you get paid over the 52 weeks but the pay isn’t 52 weeks of the year.

Most schools pay 38/39/40 weeks and then you get 28 days holiday pay.

What you need confirming is your net salary as many roles show the FTE equivalent which is based on working 37 hrs over 52 weeks when in reality you work 25-35 hrs (depending on contract) for 43 (ish!) weeks of the year.

Those payments are spread over 12 equal payments.

the reality is as a TA you get paid about 60-70% of the FTE.

Remember your pay is spread over the time you don’t work. So your annual pay is split into 12 even though you are term time.

Id be shocked if you didn’t start until the 8th and were paid from the 1st. They won’t pay you for days not worked.

Advertised pay etc will never be net as it depends on tax code, if you have another job etc. It’s likely gross which would explain difference

It might help if you posted actual amount expected v. amount received to help work out percentage deduction. I suspect possibly your tax code is wrong. If unsure HMRC taxes all your earnings.

The fastest way to sort ( I’ve found) is download the HMRC app, you’ll need a government gateway account and declare new employer / start date and they sort out your tax code.

On the payslip, where I work payslips are not sent out but you log on to a website and download yourself

I don't think anyone can answer this without seeing your payslip and contract, you need to ask your employer.

Also a lot of the pp responding don't seem to know about TTO contracts or how they work

My suspicion is there has been some confusion of gross/net pay, and you didn’t expect to be paying £200 a month in tax, NI, pension.

I think this might be right as you mention your contract showing net pay, which is really very unlikely

Your employer should give you a payslip, you need to ask them for it as a first step.

Once you have that, if it still doesn't make sense then you can ask the school to explain it to you.

@Meercat9 what does your contract say about pay dates? I’ve mostly been paid monthly but in some cases, mid-month so I got 2 weeks in arrears and 2 in advance, then other companies I’ve been paid on 26th but covering 1-31st. Also depending on whether or not you had a p45 to give payroll, if it missed the cut-off then you may have had extra deductions. Pay slip usually makes it clearer but I realise you don’t have that - so check your contract and ask for a pay slip so you can check that too.

I will ask regarding pay slip and will look on there. I don’t earn enough to have any deductions, only pension, so I’m unsure. Thank you for your replies!

Also with regards to the Inset day it'll likely be paid next month, all our overtime is paid a month in arrears so everyone in on the Sept Inset will be paid for it in October

Are you sure? NI kicks in at £125/week.

You need to find out when your payroll cut off is. Just because you’re salaried doesn’t mean you will get paid equal amounts every month. The salary would be divided based on how much of that period you have worked. So you wouldn’t expect to be paid for a full month’s work if you’ve only worked a week. It will be pro rata based on the average hours you have worked.

So my monthly wages given to me is right, but turns out that I have had emergency tax code at the moment

The Gov UK website says £242/week for NI

Thought that might be it, it will get resolved and you’ll get a tax rebate but I’ve found informing HMRC helps them join the dots faster.

www.gov.uk/guidance/tell-hmrc-if-you-have-a-new-job-or-more-than-one-job

Thank you, I did fill out a HMRC starter checklist before I started. I thought that was for the tax code