Holiday paid in lieu has been calculated wrong

[SoggyMoggy]

Hi all,

 

My girlfriend has recently taken redundancy from DWP.  She took it while she was on maternity leave so she couldn't use up her annual leave and she was due to be paid it.  This payment has now come through and it is short of what we expected.

 

She is due 12.2 days.

Her salary is £20,232

they have paid her around £685, we were expecting closer to £950

 

She contacted HR who told her that it was worked out using the formula:

Salary/12 months = 1686 (monthly wage)

1686/30 days in a month = 56.2 (daily wage)

56.2*12.2 days leave left = £685.64

 

Now she works a standard day which is 7.4 hours, so her daily wage as calculated above divided by her daily hours 56.2/7.4 = £7.59. £7.59 per hour is less than minimum wage.

 

I think that the calculation should be based on the number of days worked in a month and not the number of days in the month.

 

I work it out as:

 

20232/52(weeks in a year)=389.08

389.08/37(hours worked in a week)=10.52

12.2*7.4(hours worked in a day)=90.28

90.28*10.52=£949.35

 

She contacted HR (several times now) which is a Shared Service and they have told her that DWP gave them the formula as a policy and they pay according to that policy.  If she has a problem with the policy then she should complain to DWP.  They didn't give her any contact details to folllow this up.

 

We are trying to find someone in DWP to contact about this, but it isn't easy considering 75% of her office took redundancy so her line management has been decimated.  We have emailed the union, but haven't heard anything back yet.

 

First of all are my calculations above more correct than theirs?

 

Secondly what would be the best course of action if we can't get contact details or get nowhere with DWP and the union.  Is ACAS the next contact?

 

Many thanks and sorry for all the calculations :)

 

 

[jacktheband]

IMO you are correct and DWP are wrong. 

 

12.2 days / 5 days in a week = 2.44 weeks of leave to be paid for. 

 

£20232 / 52 weeks in a year = £389.08 per week (weekly pay) 

 

There payment (before tax and NI) for remaining holiday should be 2.44 x £389.08 = £949.36

 

 

[CraigMcK]

There is a final holiday pay calculator on the .gov site somewhere. Have a google

 

Edit: found it:  https://www.gov.uk/calculate-your-holiday-entitlement

Edited July 26, 2019 by CraigMcK
Link added

[CrappoMan]

10 hours ago, SoggyMoggy said:

1686/30 days in a month = 56.2 (daily wage)

 

There aren't 30 working days in a month.

Should have divided by 4.3333 to get weeks then divided by 5 (or the number of days normally worked in a week) to get a daily rate.

[SoggyMoggy]

Thanks for the replies.

 

All the calculators I found online are for working out how much annual leave is owed. They don't work out how much to pay. This includes the one on the GOV site. 

 

I did find one calculator, which uses the same formula as DWP did, but I don't think it is correct as it pays less than the minimum wage and less that if she had taken the time as a holiday. Anywhere that has written how to work it out uses my workings.

 

My main concern here is that HR don't care about the employee. The answer they gave was abrupt and has not given us anywhere to go, even though one of them agreed that the calculation must be wrong - they have to follow the procedure. I believe this is due to it being a shared service. I'm sure if there was a door we could knock on in the DWP office and see someone, it would be resolved in 5 minutes. 

[CraigMcK]

Clearly she gets paid £10.52/hr there can be no argument about that (Salary/(37*52)) so use the that alongside the gov site to calculate the hours then the amount. Put it in writing to HR and head office. Give them a limited time to correct it or say they don’t agree. Then make a claim if they do t pay up. 

Alternatively get them to confirm she has been getting paid less than minimum wage 

[SoggyMoggy]

Thanks guys.

 

HR have already been emailed, but we can send them a letter pointing this out. 

 

I would send to Head Office too....if I knew where it was. This is the problem, HR fob us off and we don't know who in DWP to contact. 

[king12345]

Calculations must be made using working time, not calendar time.

In your case I would calculate as follow:

 

37hrs/5 working days= 7.4 hours worked per day

£20232/261 working days per year =£77.52 this is the daily rate

£77.52×12.2=£945.75

 

261 working days is the result of 365 x 5/7, as 5 days out of 7 are working days.

 

You get to a similar result dividing by 52 weeks, but a year is slightly longer. 

[ericsbrother]

calculate the number of HOURS worked in a year and then use the govt calculator for paid holiday entitlement.

 

The employer has just punched numbers into a calculator without thinking and are now trying to justify their indefensible carelessness and will do so to the end of the earth because that is what monoliths like the DWP do.

 

If they still try and argue the lower figure then she should tell them that as they have decide she works a 24 hour day 7 days a week she is going to chase them for breaching the WTD and minimum pay laws.