Employees left unpaid after Surrey County Council payroll error

Surrey County Council staff reported missing mortgage and rent payments

Surrey County Council's new £30m payroll system has left staff "wiping tears of frustration and helplessness" over missed payments.

It is claimed that the payroll system was paying employees, including teachers and firefighters, the wrong wages.

Some staff reported missing mortgage and rent payments, unions have said.

The council has apologised for any inconvenience to employees and schools affected.

The new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system was introduced last June after the council was notified its previous payroll system, which was almost 20 years old, would no longer be supported with updates.

'Overpayments and underpayments'

Surrey County Council Trade Unions (SCCTU) said it had been helping "distraught" staff with pay errors since June 2023.

"These errors include large overpayments and underpayments, which have had dire reverberations for the staff in question," a spokesman said.

"This includes employees being unable to make payments on their mortgage, rent, cars, and utilities."

A permanent fix is not expected until early summer, SCCTU said.

The council said it was unable to provide figures for how many staff had been affected, but said the vast majority of cases had caused minimal impact.

The council said a number of "workarounds and extra resources" had been implemented.

"The recovery plan is making good progress, with the number of errors reducing significantly over time," a spokesman said.

"We are still working through some of the issues and we are grateful to our staff and schools for both their efforts and patience as we continue to do this."

To make up the shortfall, the council had also made emergency payments with staff pleading the cases to their line managers, SCCTU said.

An estimated £100,000 has been paid in fees alone for emergency payments, according to Surrey UNISON.

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