Anger as 1,300 Hampshire Constabulary police officers receive wrong pay

Around half of those affected had been underpaid and the other half overpaid this week, in what sources say is the latest in a series of problems since the county’s police, fire and council merged its back office staff to save cash.

Sources expressed fury over the repeated failure of the new system and are demanding action, saying they have no confidence in a council-run system which they claim regularly leaves monthly salaries wrong.

Hampshire Police Federation, representing more than 2,800 rank and file officers, slammed the situation as a disgrace and said H3 was a council system that simply wasn’t fit for purpose.

Meanwhile Simon Hayes, police and crime commissioner, has called for an investigation within the Hampshire County Council arm of the H3 organisation to determine how it happened and ensure it doesn’t again.

Letters about the errors, which relate to over payments on top of salary, have been posted first class to all 1,300 affected officers – at a cost of £800.

Those who were overpaid will have to return the cash while those underpaid are receiving further payments into their accounts.

The system is said to have been dogged with problems since the merger of back office staff from Hampshire police, fire and council in 2014, to create a new organisation called H3.

The aim was to save each authority £4 million.

But fed up officers are calling for top level talks and are preparing to tell police chiefs they have no confidence in H3 as they demand action to end the problems once and for all.

It is believed that the amounts involved for those who have lost or been paid extra cash vary in size, between as little as £5 or up to £150.

Previous problems are said to include women officers on maternity leave being left majorly out of pocket after being paid the wrong salary during their leave and then being ordered to repay.

One officer, who said they spoke on behalf of his entire shift, said: “We are in complete despair at the chaos that we are experiencing since we moved in to the H3 system.

“Our pay is repeatedly wrong and this month 1,300 police officers were either overpaid or underpaid. It is a disgrace, we have had enough and the bosses need to listen.

“We have no confidence in H3 and have called for a meeting with the bosses to tell them we have had enough and demand they do something.

“We have had officer cuts and as the force try to reduce bureaucracy, our skippers are spending hours trying to enter pay allowances, make changes to payroll, sort out problems, go through complicated processes to recruit. They have been turned into admin assistants instead of police officers.”

Acting deputy chief constable David Pryde said: "Allowance payments to 1,300 people were incorrect. Approximately half were underpaid and half overpaid and this mistake has now been rectified.

“We were already working with colleagues across the H3 partnership to make sure we understand the root of any problems and find long term solutions. This must continue as it is crucial staff and officers have confidence that they will receive the right payments when they work so hard.”

Mr Hayes spoke about the creation of H3 in 2014 – hailed as the first of its kind in England – saying it would deliver key support to three of the county’s largest public bodies and it would be equally governed.

He described how the partnership would form an Integrated Business Centre to deliver HR, procurement, finance and payroll functions.

Speaking about this week’s problems, he said: “The issue with overpayment to police officers was regrettable and I will be looking to the H3 partner Hampshire County Council to investigate the issue and ensure that it does not re-occur. Having spoken to the Hampshire Police Federation I am reassured that the options offered for repayment provides flexible arrangements for the officers affected.”

Hampshire Police Federation chairman John Apter, however said the system was simply not fit for purpose.

He said: “This latest error in officers pay is just one in a long line of problems since H3 was introduced.

“The system put in place by H3 to provide pay, HR and other back office functions has been problematic from its introduction and this latest failure to pay officers correctly has shown me the system is not fit for purpose. You can’t have a system in place that officers and staff have no confidence in. It is fundamental that officers and staff receive the correct pay. This is clearly not acceptable and action needs to be taken.”

His comments come after a survey of 1,100 Hampshire police officers revealed that just five per cent had confidence in the H3 system which Mr Apter told a federation annual meeting was “a damning result” as he called for an independent audit, claiming H3 was not fit for purpose.

Council leader Roy Perry said on its creation that H3 would strengthen the organisations so they could better adapt to changing priorities and government policy.

A spokesman for H3 today insisted that payroll errors were “consistently low” during the first 12 months of the the new service, which looked after more than 80,000 employees.

A statement said: “Payroll error rates have been consistently low (at 0.1%) during the first 12 months of operation.

“During the recent February payroll, an error occurred with the processing of unsocial hours payments to police officers - resulting in 678 underpayments and 684 overpayments.

Over 600 of the underpayments were for less than £100, and no underpayment was greater than £155. We identified this error before payday, and made additional balancing payments to all officers who had been underpaid. These balancing payments reached officers’ accounts one day after payday, on 16 February.

“In order to ensure that all those affected were advised in a timely manner, they were sent a letter, via first class post. We sincerely apologise for the error and any difficulties this may have caused individuals. We are working to ensure that things are resolved as quickly as possible.

“Understandably, when making such large and complex changes to support functions across the partner organisations, there have been issues to address in the early stages.

"However, this model delivering our joint support functions remains one of the largest operations of its kind in the country, with public sector partners effectively sharing capacity, resources and modern technology to deliver services to over 80,000 employees.

"The issues encountered have been relatively small when considered in the overall scale of the project, and swift resolutions have been made.

"We have been able to make better use of limited public funds, delivering combined savings of £4 million each year, while creating hundreds of new job opportunities and helping to protect front-line services.”