Paperless wage slips?
Discussion
Does anyone now the legalities surrounding paperless wage slips? My wife works for the county council who no longer provide a hard copy wage slip except for a small fee if needed, the wage slips are placed online. I would have thought that at the very least they would have to provide a paper wage slip if asked for one without any charge!
Why can't you just print them off if you need them?
We moved from having paper payslips to paperless about 3 years ago, and it's just easier! I get a PDF payslip emailed to me, and if I need to provide payslips to a mortgage lender or something, I just print the PDF and send that in. It looks no different to the previous paper payslips, and contains all the same information.
Benefit to the company - they're not having to pay for printing and posting 25,000-odd payslips in the UK alone every month.
Benefit to me - I always know where to find my payslips if I need them, and can't lose them.
For the particularly paranoid, I could always email them to my private email address if I wanted to.
We moved from having paper payslips to paperless about 3 years ago, and it's just easier! I get a PDF payslip emailed to me, and if I need to provide payslips to a mortgage lender or something, I just print the PDF and send that in. It looks no different to the previous paper payslips, and contains all the same information.
Benefit to the company - they're not having to pay for printing and posting 25,000-odd payslips in the UK alone every month.
Benefit to me - I always know where to find my payslips if I need them, and can't lose them.
For the particularly paranoid, I could always email them to my private email address if I wanted to.
Paperwless wages slips are allowed - as long as the employee agrees.
An employee can insist on paper wages slips if they want one. There will be some employees who, for whatever reasons, will not have access to computers at home (or even at work) so will not be able to download or print off payslips. In those situations, a paper wages slip is the only option.
An employee can insist on paper wages slips if they want one. There will be some employees who, for whatever reasons, will not have access to computers at home (or even at work) so will not be able to download or print off payslips. In those situations, a paper wages slip is the only option.
The transition from paper to virtual is filled with all sorts of problems as various institutions learn to trust "non-paper" evidence.
There is a genuine concern about "virtual" wages payslips and "virtual" legal wages documents like P45s and P60s.
There is scope for unscrupulous potential borrowers to amend actual P45s/P60s if trying to falsify income levels before printing out the document as "proof of earnings".
The possibility of doctoring paper P45s and P60s was always there - but it is now much easier to do.
Some lenders (or other bodies that use income evidence for other purposes) may still have an issue with "home printed" legal documents.
There is a genuine concern about "virtual" wages payslips and "virtual" legal wages documents like P45s and P60s.
There is scope for unscrupulous potential borrowers to amend actual P45s/P60s if trying to falsify income levels before printing out the document as "proof of earnings".
The possibility of doctoring paper P45s and P60s was always there - but it is now much easier to do.
Some lenders (or other bodies that use income evidence for other purposes) may still have an issue with "home printed" legal documents.
Marf said:
Mine are online, have been for 4 years across two companies.
I provide myself a paper copy by printing them out at work
Good for you.I provide myself a paper copy by printing them out at work
What if you don't have access to a computer?
The option for paer wage slips will need to be in plce for many years to come and wages slips printed off by the employee may have dubious legal standing.
Eric Mc said:
Marf said:
Mine are online, have been for 4 years across two companies.
I provide myself a paper copy by printing them out at work
Good for you.I provide myself a paper copy by printing them out at work
What if you don't have access to a computer?
But seriously, I'd very much doubt any company whose employees don't all have access to a computer would push ahead with electronic pay slips.
Both the companies I've worked at who did this, everyone had a computer and access to a printer.
Eric Mc said:
The option for paer wage slips will need to be in plce for many years to come and wages slips printed off by the employee may have dubious legal standing.
Well, they were good enough for my mortgage application 4 years ago. 
Under what circumstances might a printed pay slip be considered to have dubious legal standing? It strikes me that it would be pretty simple to get copies of the originals given a few days for the pay roll provider to send them.
The rules on paper P60s and P45s are in a state of flux at the moment. Up to a year or so, HMRC were insisting that they had to be paper.
There was a reason for this.
The tax rules state that an employer can only print off the P60/P45 once and hand the employee's paper copy of that P60/P45 to the employee for them to keep. It is a legal document - much like a court summons or a will - and carries legal weight. It was illegal for an employer to run off any further copies of the P60s and P45s.
With the advent of pdf P60s etc, what constitutes an original and legal P60?
The law still states that it is illegal for an employer to print off multiple P60s for one employee. However, once thr employee had a pdf copy, the employee can run off as many copes as they like.
It is all a bit confusing.
There was a reason for this.
The tax rules state that an employer can only print off the P60/P45 once and hand the employee's paper copy of that P60/P45 to the employee for them to keep. It is a legal document - much like a court summons or a will - and carries legal weight. It was illegal for an employer to run off any further copies of the P60s and P45s.
With the advent of pdf P60s etc, what constitutes an original and legal P60?
The law still states that it is illegal for an employer to print off multiple P60s for one employee. However, once thr employee had a pdf copy, the employee can run off as many copes as they like.
It is all a bit confusing.
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