I remember reading that almost 100,000 pensioners in the UK have been affected by an overpayment of pensions made some time ago. Apparently the Pensions Office (or a private company that had been tasked with this) screwed up.

[...] your pay statements, and how December 10, 2008 Recently My Dollar Plan told the story of a family member whose employer, in her early years on the job, neglected to withhold her retirement …. Fifteen years on, the accounting department noticed. In the discussion that ensued, she offered to [...]

[...] taken out a whole paycheck in cash. My Dollar Plan tells a cautionary tale that underscores the importance of keeping records related to your pay and your job. Single Guy Money tells a story of helping a friend organize her personal finances, an [...]

This story underscores the importance of checking every detail on EVERY paycheck the minute it comes in, and of keeping a copy of every paystub–not just for a couple of months, but for-freaking-ever. Also, correspondence such as the fifteen-year-old request to make this right should be kept on file permanently; as you note, this kind of conversation should be recorded in writing.

With the increasing emotional distance put between HR staff and employees by the automation of pay systems and outsourcing to outfits like PeopleSoft, errors not only will happen more often, HR will care less and less about them. When PeopleSoft took over our payroll system, the mess that ensued was horrific. It took them months to get my paycheck right–and I felt lucky to have been paid at all, since many people couldn’t even extract the money they’d earned. Every single check had at least one error. Several times, they did not deposit my employer’s match to my 403(b); several times, they didn’t deposit mine. The fact that this kind of error, delaying investment for weeks, worked to my long-term disadvantage meant nothing to the people receiving my protests. Then they decided that after 15 years with My Beloved Employer I was not entitled to vacation time and removed six weeks’ worth from my accumulation. When I protested, I was told people in my job class were not entitled to vacation. I had to cc e-mails to my lawyer and threaten to complain to the state Wage & Hours Division to get that one fixed.

I work for a state agency. State employees here accumulate sick leave over the years, and after you have 500 hours you get a severance payment of 30% of hourly pay for accumulated sick-leave hours; that amount goes up to 50% when you hit 1,000 hours. Obviously, this is a valuable benefit. In the last round of layoffs, HR told a bunch of veteran employees that they had not accumulated ANY sick-leave hours! These were people who had hundreds of hours (i.e., tens of thousands of dollars’ worth) of saved time. The only way you’d be able to prove how much time you’d used and how much you’d accumulated would be to have hard copies of your past pay stubs.

Keep everything related to your pay. Forever.

[...] presents An Administrative Error Could Cost You Your Retirement posted at My Dollar [...]

[...] Dollar Plan wants you to check your pay stub once in a while for any errors. You don’t want to end up like one of her relatives did, missing out on a few years of [...]

After some chasing it was corrected, but they were very keen for me to just start my pension six months later (saving them several thousand pounds in pension contributions). Apparently this was for my benefit, so I didn’t have to make back-payments to my pension scheme. I dug my heels in, and my pension scheme was eventually what it should have been.

The irony is, whatever they invested it in has probably diminished in value fourfold since all that happened. But at least I did what I could, and showed them that seeing an administrative mistake as an opportunity to save on money they should have invested on my behalf was not acceptable.

[...] My Dollar Plan: An Administrative Error Could Cost You Your Retirement [...]