Thread 56 – Covid GCSE Cohort – Spring 26 – Yr 4 Uni and Graduates

[crazycrofter]

The old thread has filled up and no one noticed - I think we're missing @oblomov26 sharp eyes!

I've tried to tag in everyone I can think of, but apologies to anyone I've missed!
@shimy @endlessdistraction @justherewithmypopcorn @mummyinbeds @aslockton @oubliettebravo @craggyrat @anothernewname460 @ealingwestmum @ewwsprouts @seeline @piggywaspushed @nctdn @icanbewhatiwant @comefromaway @heifer @kingscotestaff @delphigirl @zebracat @cantonet @socks1107 @blinkbonny @anneofcleavage

In a last minute decision, I've just booked a holiday for DS and I at the end of the month. I've been wanting to get over to see my cousin in Canada for a while but with everyone avoiding the USA flight prices have been exorbitant. Cousin has daughter just one week older than DS and a slightly older son so he's won't be stuck with oldies and we will go off for a few days just us.

@EwwSprouts that sounds lovely. Enjoy!
update - ds didn’t get the Liverpool job but got some really lovely feedback. He has however got the freelance work and is being paid a HUGE daily rate for 7 days/a week for 4 weeks so will make well over 10k plus all expenses paid, for the month. He is beyond excited and heads off on Sunday. Very very proud of him. It does mean that he will have his 23rd birthday on a ship in the North Sea!

I was literally just wondering how the interviewees had got on @Delphigirl and @Piggywaspushed ! That's amazing and an incredible daily rate for a 23 year old - well done to your ds!!! And I hope he still has a great birthday when it comes...

Enjoy Canada @EwwSprouts !

Well, we are presuming he was unsuccessful. Literally every job he has applied for has not told him of the outcome. So rude.

That's bad @Piggywaspushed 😮

@Delphigirl That is a hugely impressive earning opportunity and I assume much learning too. What an adventure!

@Piggywaspushed It is incredibly rude and disheartening.

That is great news @Delphigirl and what a great wage. I am hoping he has just graduated so won't be stung on a massive student loan repayment for next month (you don't start paying your student loan back until the April after graduation).

Martin Lewis spoke about the sting you can get if you get a bonus but don't earn over-the-paying-back-threshold.

Thanks all! @Aslockton thats a very good point but I’m slightly embarrassed to admit he is lucky enough not to have a student loan. @Piggywaspushed im really sorry your DS is having such a tough time. My DS sent a lot of applications which sank without trace but has only been ghosted once after interview and he found it almost impossible to understand. Such poor behaviour.

Well done to him Delphi girl that’s fab.

we’ve just got back from London (after also seeing Ds play a gig for a food and drink festival). He’s waiting to hear the final details on a demo recording that is being arranged and has also been asked to start work on arrangements for another show in development.

and he’s got a virtual panto meeting next week.

That all sounds very exciting @Comefromaway ! He sounds so multi-talented 💕

The demo recording is unpaid. It’s his passion project in the hope the musical he is involved with will eventually get produced professionally (after a workshop production and a production at a theatre festival)

Good news @Delphigirl

There was an item on Martin Lewis today about making sure YPs who have had part time / casual / whatever summer work get paid for any owed annual leave when they leave, so I asked DD what about hers and she said “I don’t know” (she is leaving hers soon) and I said well do you get payslips and she said “no, the money just goes into my bank account” as if she’d never thought about this, she’s had several jobs now and had this one for several months. She says she’s heard the others moaning about how much tax they pay so I suspect it’s a glitch with the payslips not a dodgy employer (she said their record keeping is very strict generally and she had filled in forms with her NI number etc). BUT I thought I had drummed it into my two that they need payslips, P45s, P60s etc and it seems the message just doesn’t get through. I’m sure I was on top of this stuff at their age without my mum nagging me all the time.

Absolutely. As someone who runs payroll they must get payslips. Sometimes it’s via an app like Workday or sometimes it’s via email.

payslips are a legal requirement, as is holiday pay.

That's amazing @Delphigirl- well done to your DS!

DS had some work experience this week and made a good impression on the senior staff and they’re going to try and help him get an entry level role in the field! He was feeling quite uninspired beforehand, but now he knows what he wants to do and what sort of jobs to apply for (and will hopefully get an introduction too). He’s already started to apply for a role today!

His gf is on holiday this week which means he has more time to get on with it!

Oh that’s lovely. Such a boost for the confidence when someone experienced rates their potential. Well done him!

Yes all their payslips have been electronic from other jobs, mine have been for years too. In some ways paper ones were better as you could just shove them in a folder but electronic ones can get lost in emails etc especially once you have left the job.

That’s amazing @Delphigirl! He won’t know what to do with all the money !
@Piggywaspusheddd literally had the same experiences until she got this job. She’s moving down south tomorrow 🙁 I’m going to be so sad yet incredibly proud of her.

Regarding payslips, a lot of companies outsource payroll so there may have been an email from an unrecognised address (maybe in spam) asking them to set up a login.

Easiest thing is to email the HR department.

Congrats to all who have found jobs and best of luck to those still searching.

I have a car insurance question...

Ds is using my car quite a bit to get to work. He is named on the insurance. I am planning to formally transfer ownership to him at some stage but wondering if the change in ownership will mean increased premiums even if I am still a named driver and both using it the same as we are currently. Has anyone any experience of this?

@Decorhate yes I think that is likely the case as it's a small business. And having asked DS as well he looked blank and looked back through emails and sure enough he has one too and he didn't do it, he has emailed his HR person to ask for a fresh link. The thing is they might never need these payslips in future, but they ought to be checking them at the time in case of mistakes and keeping them just in case, it also starts being important for things like pensions. I've had mistakes in mine a couple of times, not in normal months but when I changed my hours, when we started getting private healthcare etc.

Sorry, I'm sure I don't need to tell all
of you all of that. But getting through to the DCs feels like banging my head against a brick wall. Also keeping a record of exact dates worked where and payroll numbers can be useful in future as I have found with my old pensions and DS found when he went for a role in a school.

DS phoned me up and said his agency said he was required to use a payroll service to be paid through who would deal with his taxes and n.i and allowances etc but he was worried that they took 4% of his earnings… I said darling that is the best 4% you will ever spend. Taxation of mariners is so specialised and complicated especially if you work partly offshore and partly nearshore… so that is a good first lesson for him!

I very often find that young people at work, perhaps in their first "proper" job don't realise that their salary is not their take-home pay! And of course tax and student loan payments may not be taken straightaway depending on their start date so that is an even bigger shock once all the deductions start coming off.

I do get that this stuff is complicated and difficult, but my two are effectively sticking their heads in the sand. Aaaargh. DS takes it on board but finds it really difficult, DD sticks her fingers in her ears but is much more capable, she doesn’t like listening to me. However I hold the purse strings for her loan top-up money.

Has she registered for a gov.uk account @EffortlesslyDistracted? She should be able to see her income to date on there, assuming the company are doing things legitimately? As long as she also makes sure she requests a P45 when she leaves I think she’ll be fine, as presumably they’ve not been deducting tax. And if they have she can then make sure she requests a refund.

DD managed to lose her P45 😩 and her current job are taxing her using a month 1 tax code which means she’s paid tax unnecessarily ( she didn’t earn anything between April and June). But I’m pretty sure HMRC should issue a correct tax code and send the P45 to her employer at some point shouldn’t they?

That's on our list of things to do (DS has got his set up). She has got some overpaid tax to reclaim from last year. I think she got a a P45 from her last job. The main reason I think she should have the separate payslips though is it's zero hours and she works different hours each week so should check she's been paid for the correct amount of hours. She says she does it roughly in her head when the payment comes in. But she had some agency work earlier in the summer and hasn't had a P45 for that as she is still employed ad hoc (got a couple more days lined up) I guess she should get P60s from them all. I have made each of them run a plastic folder where they put any important paper documents.