Work have pulled a fast one here.....

[PriorityOne]

Oh dear... more work-related problems. This is a little tricky to explain but here goes.....

My workplace offered us a healthcare policy about 2 years ago, which is free to us as it's paid by work on our behalf.

In September I got a new position in a different place but under the same umbrella company..... but as it was an internal advertisement, there was no requirement to give notice. It was just a transfer across.

A number of us have recently discovered however that our health premiums have not been paid and did in fact stop in November 2012, without anyone saying a word about it..... so people have had claims rejected since but haven't said anything. Stupid feckers....

As I had not made a claim at this time, this was all news to me until my boss called us all in and said that he'd had a word with HR and the premiums would be reinstated. This was about a month ago.... and since that time I've made a claim and yes, you guessed it, I got a rejection letter this morning.

I have emailed my boss, HR and the healthcare company today but am really p*ssed off that this was all done without telling anyone. Apparently, the reason it was stopped was because there wasn't enough money in the budget at the time and the only reason this smaller workplace could start up as a separate entity was if money was trimmed off somewhere.

Any thoughts? I'm so p*ssed off that if it's not sorted, I'll go sick and they can pay for someone to do my job for however long it takes to calm down....

[Never-In-Doubt]

Re: Work have pulled a fast one here.....

You need to win lotto cos you and your work (management) just don't get on

Love it. As an outsider it's better than westenders!

Sorry no words of wisdom. Just a little piss take

[Pixie]

Re: Work have pulled a fast one here.....

Bloody hell P1...you're not having a good time of it at work at the moment.

Sorry I can't help you...just want to offer my support x

[PriorityOne]

Re: Work have pulled a fast one here.....

You need to win lotto cos you and your work (management) just don't get on

Love it. As an outsider it's better than westenders!

Sorry no words of wisdom. Just a little piss take

Useless...... !!.....

I might have to mash them up a bit to keep them on their toes..... emails have gone all over the place this afternoon. I feel shafted and that really doesn't sit well with me..... and I will recover those losses one way or another.

[PriorityOne]

Re: Work have pulled a fast one here.....

Bloody hell P1...you're not having a good time of it at work at the moment.

Sorry I can't help you...just want to offer my support x

Thanks Pix. It's a shambles of a place.....they are tw*ts.

My boss needs to get his act together and get this sorted for people but going by his past endeavours, I'm also doing it myself.

[MrsD]

Re: Work have pulled a fast one here.....

P1

was it in your contract?

back to basics here, they can't just fart about with contracted terms


are they bonkers or just plain bloody stupid?

[PriorityOne]

Re: Work have pulled a fast one here.....

P1

was it in your contract?

back to basics here, they can't just fart about with contracted terms


are they bonkers or just plain bloody stupid?

No... it wasn't in our contracts and even if it was, we had to sign new ones anyway but none of us were required to give notice. My boss assured us recently that the healthcare stuff would be reinstated because we are all under the same workplace umbrella company (so to speak) and it hasn't.

They have a history of pulling fast ones on people though, that's why I've reacted like this.

Oh.... and my boss has just emailed to say that this isn't really his area...... is he thick or what?! He stood there and told us that he'd had conversations with HR and that they had agreed to reinstate it! FFS! I'm going to have to do this myself...... he's such a knob.

Mini rant over....

[Beefy1976]

Re: Work have pulled a fast one here.....

Unless it is written in black and white in your contract...

I know from bitter experience. I lost health care, company car scheme, pension, bonus...

They can pretty much do what they like.

[MrsD]

Re: Work have pulled a fast one here.....

well there might be a delivered in practice instance here

you can't have a benefit, which by the way you are paying tax on
then some numpty just removes it cos they are either eejits or they have no money, it's simply not as easy as that


you should raise a grievance and ask why they have removed benefits with no consultation

you need to frighten the shyte out of HR

[PriorityOne]

Re: Work have pulled a fast one here.....

Unless it is written in black and white in your contract...

I know from bitter experience. I lost health care, company car scheme, pension, bonus...

They can pretty much do what they like.

That seems to be the way things are a lot of the time.....

well there might be a delivered in practice instance here

you can't have a benefit, which by the way you are paying tax on
then some numpty just removes it cos they are either eejits or they have no money, it's simply not as easy as that


you should raise a grievance and ask why they have removed benefits with no consultation

you need to frighten the shyte out of HR

I will do that Mrs D. I will give HR a chance to reply back this week and if not, will raise merry Hell. The fact they let it lapse 2 months after we all transferred over is a bit of a thick move as well.....

[julian]

Re: Work have pulled a fast one here.....

Check if they have deducted tax for it. Normally all that appears on the wage slip is the tax deduction for benefits.

If they have continued to deduct tax, or not informed the taxman, who may have incorporated it into your tax code, they are doubly accountable.

In most cases there is a notice period when the benefit is removed. An insurance company will not just let somebody stop paying premiums. If the company backs the policy and just uses the insurers to manage it, they can do what they want, but not without making it informing you explicitly that the benefit is being removed.

[PriorityOne]

Re: Work have pulled a fast one here.....

Check if they have deducted tax for it. Normally all that appears on the wage slip is the tax deduction for benefits.

If they have continued to deduct tax, or not informed the taxman, who may have incorporated it into your tax code, they are doubly accountable.

In most cases there is a notice period when the benefit is removed. An insurance company will not just let somebody stop paying premiums. If the company backs the policy and just uses the insurers to manage it, they can do what they want, but not without making it informing you explicitly that the benefit is being removed.

Thanks Julian. I can't see any tax deductions on any payslips for this but as it was being paid by the company and not us, I'm not sure if it would show..... There is definitely nothing on their for benefits though. My tax code is the same as it was before I was transferred over.

As far as I can make out, the insurance company is unaware that premiums were just stopped for certain people as part of a block policy. When I emailed them in March to find out what paperwork they would need prior to a private consultation, they wrote and told me... yet according to the letter I received yesterday, premiums ceased to be paid in November last year, even though I had transferred across to this other workplace in September. That in itself makes no business sense. I had a claim paid in November just before they ceased (fortunately) but no-one had the decency to let anyone know premiums were ceasing and in my books, that's dirty.

I have just looked on our umbrella company's website and this health policy is open to all employees, so I intend to kick some butt.

[MrsD]

Re: Work have pulled a fast one here.....

P1 sounds as if someone somewhere has made a simple mistake.

If you are receiving health care, it is a benefit in kind, the company must tell the tax peeps and it should have appeared on your notice of coding as a deduction, if it doesn't someone somewhere is in deep shit.

if you've been receiving it and not paying tax on it, you'll be liable for the tax, also for previous years.

I would definitely go to HR and get chapter and verse, make them aware you know the rules and see what they say.

it could just be some numpty not putting your names on a list, which is easily fixed, it could be a lot more than that, which could look like fraud in some cases, so you need to get it straight, even just for your own tax purposes

[SXGuy]

Re: Work have pulled a fast one here.....

Tax code deductions for benifits wont appear till the following year, it works on a arrears basis im afraid.

HMRC dont know what benifits someone has until the end of the year, and its then they recode you and take in to account benifits from the previous year.

With that said, with the new RTI scheme started this April, it may happen in the same year in future, but non of us know enough yet to see if thats the case.

But you still have an argument as i see it, if your tax code this year, is allowing for health care benifits you had last year, you will get a coding notice telling you what your new code is and what has come off of it.

If it runs for the whole year, and you only received health care for example 3 months, then your clearly overpaying tax for the other 9? if you see what i mean.

So its not as easy to just say, we will reinstate it, as it will cause you to pay more tax over the time you wasnt receiving it.

Maybe a call to Acas?

[MrsD]

Re: Work have pulled a fast one here.....

they've had it for two years

so surely it would have appeared in a tax code by now?

regardless of the tax position, you can't just withdraw a benefit without notification and discussion