Last month colleagues on the staff bank should have received an important letter with their payslip. It explained about a change coming next month, when we'll start to pay colleagues for bank work weekly, and affects ALL colleagues on the bank, whether they work in a particular week or not (due to possible weekly tax and NI adjustments).

Please take the opportunity to read the letter again:

Changes to pay dates for colleagues with a bank contract - October 2017

Our colleagues have told us that being paid weekly for their work through the staff bank is important to them and that it may also encourage more people to work more shifts with CHFT through the bank. We have listened to their views and from 1 October 2017 we will be moving toward weekly pay for all colleagues with a bank contract.

This letter explains when colleagues will be paid for any bank work, gives important information relating to income tax and national insurance and who to contact with queries.

I’m not on the bank, so why have I received this letter?

You have received this letter because you are currently set up in our eRoster system. Recently we went through a process of setting up a bank position for colleagues with a substantive contract at CHFT, irrespective of whether they had previously worked on the bank or not. This was to enable easy access to bank work for colleagues. Details of how to opt out of the bank are set out overleaf. If you want to stay on the bank please read on as you will be affected by these changes.

Pay dates for work undertaken on the bank – important changes from October 2017

Payday for work completed on the bank will normally be each Friday.  Occasionally, this may have to move to a Monday or Tuesday so as not to impact on the normal monthly payroll process. We expect this to occur on no more than four occasions in the 12 month period to October 2018 and we will notify you in advance. From 1 October 2017 work completed on the bank will be paid as follows:-

                   Thereafter payday will be at weekly intervals following the same pattern.

Colleagues with a bank only contract

We appreciate this may have an impact on your personal finance arrangements and you may have direct debits and/or standing orders in place based around a pay date of 27th of each month.  Our payroll partners at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (who are supporting us with this change) have told us past experience has shown that moving direct debit and standing order payment dates to the 1st of the month avoids issues when payment dates change.

Colleagues with a bank contract AND a substantive contract – IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Due to the way income tax and national insurance deductions are calculated please note the following:-

Income Tax

Where work is done on the bank in any particular week, income tax will be deducted from pay as normal. However, if you do not work in a particular week the payroll system will calculate a tax refund (it will assume you are owed tax because you have not worked that week) and this will be credited to your bank account on the normal weekly payday.

The value of this refund will be a maximum of £44 per week, and will depend on your tax code and the tax you have paid to date. This means that if you don’t work any bank shifts for a whole month it could result in 4 or 5 weeks of refunds. Then, at the end of the month the salary for your substantive job will be paid as normal less any previous tax rebates received. The payroll system will calculate your tax taking into account the refunds already paid to you that month.  

Please take into account such refunds when managing your personal finances. The advice is to check your bank account on a weekly basis and again when monthly salaries are paid.

National Insurance (NI)

Unlike income tax, NI refunds are not paid if you don’t work in a particular week. However, it’s possible that you could work the same shifts earning the same amount of money in two separate weeks and have a different amount deducted for NI. This is because there is a monthly ceiling limit of earnings of £680 before NI is paid.

For illustrative purposes here is an example:-

Weeks 1 and 2: No bank shift worked – no earnings, so no NI deducted

Week 3: Bank work with earnings of £150 - no deduction for NI as the earnings are below the monthly limit

Monthly salary paid of £500 - no deductions as total weekly and monthly pay to date is still below the monthly limit of £680

Week 4: Bank work with earnings of £150.  Total earnings in the month are more than £680 so NI is payable. In this example, the NI deduction is £14.40.

How to opt out of being on the staff bank and the deadline for October changes                            

If you feel you are never likely to work on the CHFT bank you may wish to have your bank post removed from the payroll system.  To do this, please email flexible.workforce@cht.nhs.uk by Friday 22 September 2017 quoting your full name and payroll number which you can find on your payslip or in the Electronic Staff Record (ESR).

Opting out of paper payslips

Did you know you can see all your pay information, including your payslip in ESR? Colleagues who have their payslip sent to their home address may decide to opt out as they pay the postage.

Contact us

If you need any further advice or guidance please email: leedsth-tr.chfttimesheets@nhs.net    

Yours sincerely

Jason Eddleston

Director of Workforce and Organisational Development