OPFP

LegacyUser

I applied for one parent family payment in September. Had the meeting with the inspector and that was fine. Returned from my maternity leave end of November. Now I've been sent a letter asking for a statement from my employer of gross weekly earnings since I reccommenced work AND/OR current pay-slip.

The problem here is that I work in retail and therefore I returned to work at the busiest time of the year, there-fore my earnings since I returned are not representative of my average yearly earnings... I think one week I even earned 400 and another 450 or something (got paid for Christmas Day & Stephen's Day even though the store was closed). However there are also weeks through-out the year I might only earn 250. My first week back actually I think I earned something like that. I had already provided them with the previous year's p60 when I applied which showed my average earnings to be about 360 a week over the course of the year. I had also provided them with pay-slips already from last year. Why am I being asked for this again now?

Furthermore I think if my employer was to issue me a statement like that the figures would also be greatly skewed upwards based on the past 7 weeks as I was given additional payments some weeks, for instance I was paid for the bank holidays I missed while on maternity leave, which obviously isn't really part of my true earnings for those weeks. We also recieve vouchers as Christmas bonus and that isn't really part of my true earnings per week wither and it's only something I recieved once a year, so don't really think it's fair to have that included as part of my average wages the past 7 weeks - I mean the p60 would include that payment and it would be divided over 52 weeks.

Last week I was paid 330 and the week before 360, so I'm wondering should I just send in these current pay-slips? I don't have all my pay-slips since I returned to work, I lost them to be honest. Or should I ask my employer to provide this statement but to either omit the additional bank holiday/vouchers payments and/or to include them but explain the inflation in my wages in the letter? The problem as well is with getting this letter from my employer it usually has to be sent from head office, social welfare expect all this in by the 23rd and there's no way that the statement would be completed and sent by this date.

Any advise appreciated.

wmpdd3

I think send all payslips, but add a note to each one explaining what the extra money was. If you dont you'll cause more issues. I was the same, the one week I had to send in payslips I was asked to cover for someone on since and I had worked loads of hours. This was for a means test, not opfp.

Remember if you paysllips cause you issues you can just ask to be re means tested in a few months when you have a good few payslips all with the same pay.