AIBU to expect an apology after employer error suspended my UC claim?

[TrashyTash]

I'm a carer for my Mother and receive UC and a small amount of Carers Allowance. I also work on an ad hoc basis part time, although I don't make much money from this. I work for the social scene and for a change in routine.

A couple of months ago I was overpaid by a large amount, which I swiftly paid back after contacting payroll. But UC saw this as a large payment from an employer, and suspended my claim. After a lengthy RTI dispute, where I had to obtain information from work, send numerous emails, and constantly prove I didn't have this money my case finally got resolved. BUT I have never had an apology from my employer, particularly the person whose 'human error' caused this. Am I right to feel this isn't acceptable?

Someone made a mistake but unfortunately its not on them really about your claim. An apology might be nice but ultimately they probably dont realise the repercussions.

it is unacceptable but they will just shrug their shoulders and move on with their life and put it down to being a mistake and everybody’s human and to hell with the impact that it’s had on you

Mistakes happen.
Live with it.

You probably don't realise the effects you've had on other people throughout your life.

An apology will make no difference to the hassle you've endured. Realistically it wont even make any difference to your mood.

They didn't do it deliberately.

Put your anger and annoyance to one side. That will be better than. All the apologies in the world.

Wow harsh replies! I have worked in payroll and I just want to say if there’s a human error we ALWAYS feel bad about it and we apologise. We spend hours trying to check hundreds of details on our crappy software and sometimes mistakes happen despite have so many checks and controls.

Im surprised you haven’t had an apology.

Do they know it caused you a big problem? It happened to me once, but the only inconvenience was transferring it back, so not an issue at all. I didn’t expect an apology.

You deserve an apology but it will make no practical difference so is not worth pursuing.

I run a payroll and if I did this I’d have been mortified, apologised profusely, and helped you get the matter resolved however I could.

Why is payroll so shit? It’s bizarre how it’s universally rubbish.

I had to design my own control sheet I can dump my report into to check for variances but it’s a complete nonsense.

Sorry for the derail!

If i make a mistake, I apologise. Im surprised this is not considered the normal thing to do.

I think you have every right to email HR and Head of finance and lay out EXACTLY the consequences of THEIR mistake and how much grief it caused you.
You may not get any apology but you will have the satisfaction of spelling out a fxxk up znd addressing it to them and cc anyone else you can think of.
Decent staff would apologise. Note specifically how much stress it caused YOU to sort out THEIR mess.

I'd say it depends on what the employer did to help you with the UC issue. Like obviously the person who did the mistake should've supplied evidence of that immediately for you to give DWP.

If they did then it's more the DWP being crap for either not believing your employer or taking ages to rectify the problem. Those things are out of your employers control.

Firstly, thank you for all the comments. So, yes, my employer does know that their mistake caused all the hassles. Basically my hours of 4.84 were inputted as 484, hence the overpayment. There has been no apology from the person responsible but HR did try to sort it out for me. The person responsible has done nothing. She did not reply to my emails or even acknowledge her mistake. Since then she ignores me. I know an apology won't make much of a difference, but it would be a sign of acknowledgement.

Years ago I did bank shifts for an NHS trust which was always banging on about its vision and values, and how they were people focused

Only they didn’t pay me for two months. After the second missed payment I was presented with the option of waiting til the end of following month to get paid, or if I could tell them what I needed the money for they would look into whether it would justify the cost of running an additional payroll that month.

At that point, I’m afraid to say I kind of lost my shit and gave them notice if payment wasn’t immediately rectified I would be issuing proceedings against them at tribunal to recover my pay.

I never did receive an apology, so whilst you are not unreasonable in wanting an apology for the uncalled for stress, it’s probably wise to assume one won’t be forthcoming.