Maternity pay during Christmas

Hey lovelies, I’m looking for abit of advice and was wondering if there was anyone that works in HR/Payroll that could advise me? In Decembers pay I was on statutory maternity pay (90%) yet I was underpaid by about a weeks pay. I raised this with my employer and they said that as they process payroll earlier in the run up to Christmas their payroll system (Sagepay) doesn’t allow them to pay SMP in advance? I’ve attached a screenshot of the email. He’s worded it in a way that it’s HMRC paying me, yet from my understanding my employer is paying and processing it and claims back from HMRC. I work for a small company and I feel that even if the system only allows to pay SMP up to then, surely they could have topped it up so I wasn’t underpaid and deduct it from the following pay to even it out? Surely it’s their responsibility to ensure I’m paid in full regardless of what their payroll system allows. Did anyone else experience this with their pay and can they refuse to pay until next month? As they have just told me that there is nothing they can do.

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I dont get how that works as if your on a salary you would still get paid the full month even if you have a cut of for sage im pretty sure mine was normal. Are they topping you up or you just on SMP?

Sorry maybe it’s just me but I’m confused by what you’re asking… they are going to pay you the week missed off December in January so technically you won’t have lost anything? X

The systems error is for them to top it up. They shouldn’t let the system underpay you. You should be paid for the same date range as a normal employee (work in HR software company)

@Ella yep, that’s right.. they have underpaid me for December but it will be in Januarys pay, but that shouldn’t happen. From my understanding they are responsible to pay in full each month and if there is a system error, this shouldn’t be my problem, it’s theirs. Just over a weeks pay is a substantial amount, and I wasn’t told of this until I got paid and raised it with them, so I’m just trying to workout whether this is common (as my partner who is a company director said it shouldn’t be allowed) or if I’m in a position to push for them to pay it sooner x

@Hol yeah, I don’t really get it.. my partner said it seems that it’s actually just a admin nightmare for them and how they process it internally and that’s why they have decided to not bypass it. Decembers pay was just SMP, January’s will be topped up by my employer. Very shitty of them! x

@Sophie i wouldnt say its a system error they just havent put it through properly. For example when we put ours through our month for hourly ppl get cut off on the 23rd corse anyone on salary get paid every full month no matter what so for smp they should have put it through as a full month even if you were hourly actually, sounds like they've just tried to get away with it so it doesnt go out of december

Hi Sophie. Sounds like your payroll messed up and couldn't be asked to fix the error and you can totally ask for an advance, for the week they underpaid you. I work in payroll for GMP 🙂

It’s half way through January already - I’d just let it go and January’s pay will be great.

If their payroll goes through a system like sage you cannot manually override it, as it all automatically gets input from and submits info direct to HMRC.

I can see your UK - personally I’d be giving ACAS a call to clarify all this - they’ll be able to help and give you the right information so you can go back your employer with it

I don’t get that, surely they are still paying the same pay period but the pay date is brought forward?

It's a statutory payment that cannot be overridden as they won't be able to claim it back. You will get it processed in January run. They should have informed you in advance of that

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