Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

263. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the reason lower paid teachers, qualified post-2012 and working in a non-casual substitute position that do not get paid for holidays and so on, had incorrect tax deductions made to their salaries before Christmas 2018 and despite protestations, his Department has failed to rectify the position (details supplied); the steps he will take to refund all moneys due to these teachers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5700/19]

Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Revenue Commissioners introduced real time PAYE on the 1st January 2019, which was the biggest change to the PAYE system since the 1960s. The first payroll of 2019 paid by the Department was on the 3rd January 2019 for post primary teachers and substitute teachers and on the 10th January for primary, non-teaching staff and retirees.

Schools input records of employment through the On Line Claims System for substitute teachers and the details of each period of employment transfers to the Department where the appropriate rates of pay are applied, statutory deductions are calculated and the payment issues in the regular payroll run for the sector.

In the first payrolls of the New Year, the payroll files that transferred to Revenue inadvertently included an end date for substitute staff which informed Revenue that these staff would not be paid under this employer number in the future. This notification caused Revenue to immediately reduce the tax credits and cut of points to zero for this cohort of staff which meant that when they were next paid, there were no tax credits available to be applied to the salary if the same people were paid in the second payroll issue.

The payroll software has been amended to prevent an end date transferring to Revenue for future payments which means substitute teachers paid for the first time in 2019 on payrolls after the 17th January will not have problems with tax credits. However this did not correct the issues that arose for the staff who were paid already.

A solution is being tested at present in consultation with Revenue. It is expected that this solution will be successful and all primary substitute teachers and substitute non teaching staff will have the correct tax deducted on the next pay day of 21st February.

Work is ongoing in relation to the post primary payroll and it is anticipated that some adjustments will be processed for the payroll issue of the 14th February and further adjustments will be processed for the next pay issue of the 28th February.