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.

@Theyreeatingthedogs no it doesn't - employee NI isn't deducted until you reach 1047/month, or 241 a week.

Hi OP. I had exactly the same issue when I changed schools a few years ago. I was paid until 31st August at my old school, (pay accrued throughout the previous school year) but as term started on the 5th September at my new school, the first pay packet was less than a full month. It seemed unfair, but that's the way they do it.

Usually the apprenticeship is a ,maximum of 30 hours. Inset days are included in normal pay. School staff do not get additional pay for attending.

Without knowing the hours it really is difficult to help

take the amount divide by the minimum pay and that should give you an idea of the hours. Then times by 12 to give you a yearly amount.

your pay slip should be online and I would ask school to ensure you have your own log in details

It is but tbh I’ve filled one in before and still been stuck on emergency tax for months. Downloaded HMRC app and they fixed it before my next pay. I didn’t get my excess tax back till March though despite it being fixed in December.

I'm.not sure that's right. She should have a salary based on 30 hours x 38 weeks or whatever, then it's divided by 12.

I didn't see the OP was on emergency tax before I replied. But I still think they have probably started their pay from 5th September giving a short month in September. My pay is also divided into 12 equal months despite being term time only but if you start partway through a month, you won't be paid for a full month.

The mystery has been solved as it was tax code related however -

let’s say a salaried employee takes a week off unpaid leave in the middle of their month - they would not expect to be paid for the time off so that would be deducted

by the same logic, if someone had started working half way through the month, they should not expect a full month’s pay as they would not have worked for that period

Yes obviously, but ops contract started on 1st September.

It started on the 8th but she voluntarily attended a day on the 5th. It would make sense in most payrolls to be paid the assumed salary from 1-30 then anything outside of ‘assumed’ (deductions, annual leave, overtime) is calculated within a ‘payroll cut off period’ and any corrections are then made on the following pay check. Payroll cut off is unique to each business and OP can check that within her contract

She literally says her contract started on the first. But whatever, I only work in hr in an education setting

We call it equated pay, for ‘term time only’ staff.

If term time is 38 weeks, and you get 5 weeks holiday, then you’re paid for 43 weeks per year. And if you’re part time, this fraction will also be applied to the offered salary.

So if the offered salary is £20k, for example, and you’re working 20 hours per week, the calculation would look like this:

20/37 x 43/52 x 20,000 = 8,939.71

This would then be divided by 12, so that you get an equal amount each month of the year. Obviously tax etc would be deducted

Just checking you understand you need to sort out the tax code yourself. Did you have another job before this one? Did you send in your p45 to your current job?

This is my experience. A lot of people go in expecting 20k divided by 12.