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Thousands of women might be missing from pension due to “common error” by employers during the maternity leave

Thousands of British women may lack significant amounts of their pension because of a “common error” made by their employers, while on maternity leave, the money blog can reveal exclusively.

When a woman goes on vacation, their employer should continue to contribute to pensions based on full salary. However, women reported that their contributions have been wrongly changed to match their lower holiday income.

Women who talked to Sky News reported that they disappeared anywhere from several hundred to 4,000 pounds in pension pots.

The Advocacy Nugget Economii group shared money after examining 236 women about their pension contributions during the maternity leave. Over 100 years, they found discrepancies and, while some were reimbursed the money after they grew up with the human resources department, others did not.

It is not clear how widespread the problem is, but Katie Guild, co-founder of Nugget Savings, said: “We are worried that we have just scratched the surface of this problem. This error could have started until an automatic harvest in 2012, thus affecting millions of women. ”

Some “face resistance” tries to get the error resolved

More than half a million women take maternity leave every year, and a wrong payment of only a few hundred pounds loses the chance to earn interest in the following decades, aggravating the existing gender pension gap, which sees that the ordinary woman retreats with a 55% lower pension pot.

Katie said, “Some have managed to recover their lost pension contributions.

“Others have confronted the resistance of their employers who said they had been too long to remedy the error or employers still believed that they had correctly contributed to their pensions.”

The problems are the “tip of the iceberg”

Deputy Stella Creasy expressed concern for Sky News about these discrepancies.

“The problems that women have with pensions and maternity leave are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what millions of older women get to be devoted,” she said.

“When employers write women because they have children, they do not give them only their careers, they also send them to poverty.

“With the women who live longer and forming a greater proportion of the older workforce, it is time to engage not only to conclude the remuneration gap, but also the gender pensions.”

“Without excuse or explanation”

A two mum, working in marketing and asked to remain anonymous, said that 4,000 pounds are missing in the pension pot.

The amount was finally reimbursed by her employer after she reported it with them.

But she said that there is no “excuses for explanation” and that she has not been compensated for interest loss – her pension is currently a 7%increase, which means she has lost hundreds of pounds in interest.

“Given how difficult they have worked at this time, combined with increasing financial pressures and extorted costs of child care, I am discouraged that a large corporate company has chosen to leave me out of pocket because of a technical problem,” she said.

Chloe, 29 years old, two -year -old, said her employer paid 717.22 pounds while on maternity leave in the role of aviation. She raised the problem and eventually was reimbursed.

She said that her employer was not apologetic and expected the software to calculate it automatically.

Sam, also a two -year -old mom, was missing 1,400 pounds – she had to involve her union to recover the money.

“I ended up solving the calculations for the missing contributions and estimated what would have been their growth over the year – around 10%,” she said.

“Eventually I was offered a refund and something like 0.4% interest. I challenged this and got 10%.”

She said her finance director and personally apologized and thanked her for identifying the problem.

“It was proven to be a long -term mistake and they were to identify everyone with impact and restore the missed contributions,” she said.

How to work in practice – an example …

A woman pays 5% of her salary in the pension pot, totaling 200 pounds in her salary. Her employer matches this and pays 200 pounds. This means that 400 pounds enters her pension pot every month.

While on maternity leave, the woman’s salary decreases and now pays 100 pounds in the pension pot, because the percentage is based on its effective payment. However, her employer should continue to pay the entire 200 pounds as if she had not taken the leave. This means that £ 300 pension every month.

Why many do not even know that they are missing

Not all women have been reimbursed.

A mother, who was missing around 250 pounds out of six months of maternity leave, said that her employer told her she would “look”, but still should not repay the deficit.

“I feel disappointed because I had other errors with the payment of maternity,” she said. “It is sufficiently difficult to grow a new -born, without the need to go through payments with a fine tooth comb to check the errors. It is tiring to be forced to drive things and everything feels very unfair.”

Harriet Morton-Liddle, co-founder of Nugget Savings, said the organization tried to discover why the tips on pension contributions during the maternity leave were no clearer.

“I contacted the HMRC, the pension regulator and the consultancy of the citizens and even filed requests, but I still did not have a direct answer regarding the correct procedure that should be followed for employers or employees,” she said.

Most of the online tips were “contradictory,” she said, which means that many employers may not even realize that they make mistakes.

“We want to increase the awareness of women in the UK who could be affected, but they may not realize it, so that they can rightly claim money that belong to their pensions pot,” she said.

How to say if you have been affected

You have to consult your job supplier at work – there is usually an online portal to do so, although the amounts contributed can be listed on Paycheque (but you can list your own contributions).

Your pension provider should also send you an annual statement, stressing how much you both contribute and your employer.

Check the amounts paid by your employer – both before and after taking maternity leave – are the same? If they decreased, it may have been unpaid.

What did the pension regulation authority say

When Sky News contacted the Pension Regulatory Authority, Catherine Nicholson, the interim director of automatic registration, said: “Some employers take common errors, jumping important steps in calculating pensions and communications to staff. These errors include the wrong contributions to the staff receiving maternity.”

He said he has recovered more than 700 million pounds in the missing contributions due in 2012, but has no specific figures related to the wrongly paid pensions while on maternity leave.

The pension ombudsman said he had no data in this regard, but said: “I did not notice an increase in complaints arising from this problem.”

He added: “All professional pension schemes must work an IDRP (the process of resolving internal disputes) if they remain unhappy after the IDRP process, they are able to file a complaint to TPO, we act impartially, and our service is free.”

Have you been affected or found discrepancies with pension payments on maternity leave? Send an E -mail to [email protected]