Does your payslip make sense?

Being paid a fair wage for a fair day’s work is something that everyone in the world of work aspires to but understanding the payslip on which this is calculated is a different matter. Even for experienced workers, one of the most important paper or digital documents we receive each month can be a total mystery.  

Understanding Tax codes, National Insurance contributions, pension deductions, payrolling benefits, bonus payments and so on can be so daunting that most of us simply ignore these details and focus on the main number that will be paid into our bank account.  

At the Ink Group we have seen first-hand the lack of understanding around payslips as part of the work we do for our clients as a payroll bureau. An area of particular concern is the real lack of financial education that young people have as they leave mainstream education and enter the workforce for the first time. For many, comprehending what PAYE means is a challenge and that’s even before learning how to manage a bank account, a mortgage, avoid debt, high-interest credit cards and loans and build up a pension pot.  

Fortunately, auto-enrolment has drastically improved the retirement landscape for workers with easier access to a workplace pension scheme, but there is still much work to be done. E=mc2 may be the most famous maths equation, but it isn’t much help in understanding a P11d or P60. 

That is why we are delighted that the Financial Times (FT) has launched its Financial Literacy and Inclusion Campaign to help people understand basic finance and at Ink we will be supporting this campaign as our charity of choice for 2022.  

The charity will work at the grassroots level and aims ‘to ensure that rigorous grounding in the basic building blocks of financial life management is offered to all young people, and that those who were excluded from this when growing up can later access comprehensive, simple and, where necessary, bespoke learning resources to build their knowledge and confidence.’  

At Ink we will be hosting a webinar at the beginning of 2022 to launch our support of this campaign and discuss ways in which we can support our clients educate their employees about payslips and other areas of financial education. If this is something that would be of interest, please get in touch at hello@theinkgroup.co.uk