Note: This feature is only available to early access customers.
Use pension overrides to correct an employee’s pensionable pay, employee pension contribution, or employer pension contribution in a draft payroll.
Get the most out of Bob
- Correct pension values directly in UK Payroll without raising a support ticket.
- Review the impact of a correction on the employee’s draft payslip before confirming payroll.
- Keep a clear audit trail by adding a reason for each override.
- Correct refunds or under-deductions for active pension schemes and eligible inactive schemes from the current tax year.
When you override pensionable pay for an active pension scheme, Bob recalculates percentage-based employee and employer pension contributions.
If the employee or employer pension contribution already has its own override, Bob keeps that override and doesn’t replace it when pensionable pay changes.
For example, if an employee’s pensionable pay is corrected from £2,000 to £2,200. If their employee and employer contributions are percentage-based and don’t have separate overrides, Bob recalculates those contributions using £2,200.
When you override an employee pension contribution, Bob recalculates the draft payslip based on the pension scheme type.
| Pension type | What happens |
|---|---|
| Relief at source | Net pay is adjusted. |
| Net pay arrangement | Taxable pay and tax are recalculated. |
| Salary sacrifice | Taxable pay, NIable pay, tax, and NI are recalculated. |
For example, if an employee was over-deducted £50 for a salary sacrifice pension, enter a negative override for the employee pension contribution. Bob recalculates the employee’s draft payslip and reflects the refund.
When you override an employer pension contribution, Bob updates the employer contribution value and year-to-date totals. This doesn’t directly change the employee’s net pay.
For example, the employer contribution should be £120 instead of £100 for this period. Enter 120 as the override value for the employer pension contribution.
Pension overrides are reflected in the employee’s draft payslip and relevant payroll reports.
| Area | What to expect |
|---|---|
| Employee pay records | Shows the corrected this-period value and override indicator. |
| Payslip side panel | Shows the recalculated draft payslip. |
| PDF payslip | Shows corrected pension values and pension totals. |
| Payroll variance report | Indicates when a pension value was overridden. |
| FPS | Includes corrected pension values where relevant. |
| Pension download | Includes corrected pension values for payments to the pension provider and excludes refund amounts from this-period provider payments. You can include or exclude negative values; this is determined when you run the report. On pension integrations, any negative values will default to 0. |
| Activity log | Shows who made the override, when it was made, and the reason. |
How to add a pension override
Note: Pension overrides are only available in draft payrolls. If more than one draft payroll is open, you can only edit the earliest draft payroll. Future draft payrolls are read-only until the earlier draft is confirmed.
- In UK Payroll, navigate to Employees.
- Select the employee whose pension values you need to correct.
- Click View payments > View employee pay records.
- Select the draft pay period you want to update.
Find the pension row you want to correct: Pensionable pay, Employee pension contribution, or Employer pension contribution.
Note: If an employee opts out of a pension scheme, leaves a scheme, or changes provider during the current tax year, previous pension values may still appear in employee pay records. For inactive pension schemes, some values may be read-only or limited to pensionable pay corrections. UK Payroll shows the available actions based on the pension scheme status and the draft payroll. Overriding the pensionable pay for an Inactive scheme also requires the Employee and Employer contributions to be recalculated, as these are not auto updated.
- Click the three dot menu > Override item value.
- Enter the corrected value for this period in New value.
- Enter a positive value to increase the amount.
- Enter a negative value to refund or reduce the amount.
Enter 0 if the value for this period should be zero.
Note: Year-to-date pension values can’t be negative. If an override would make a year-to-date value negative, Bob won’t save the override.
- In Note for employee pay record, enter the reason for the correction.
- Select Apply. UK Payroll recalculates the draft payslip and updates the relevant this-period and year-to-date values.
- To delete a pension override, select the three dot menu > Delete override to the right of the relevant pension row. Click Delete to remove the override. Bob removes the override and recalculates the payslip using the original calculated value.
FAQs
Can I add a pension override after payroll is confirmed?
No. Pension overrides can only be added, edited, or deleted while the payroll is in draft.
What happens if there are multiple draft payrolls?
Only the earliest draft payroll can be edited. Future draft payrolls can be viewed but not edited until the earlier draft is confirmed.
Can I enter a negative override?
Yes. Negative values can be used for refunds or reductions, as long as the year-to-date value doesn’t become negative.
Can year-to-date values be negative?
No, year-to-date values can never be negative, as this will cause the FPS to fail.
Can I leave the override field blank?
No. Enter a value, such as a positive amount, a negative amount, or 0. To remove an override, delete it instead.
What should I write in the comment field?
Add a clear reason for the correction, such as “Refunding employee pension contribution after opt out” or “Correcting employer contribution after provider change.”
Can I correct pension values from a previous tax year?
No. Pension overrides are for the current tax year only.
Can I use pension overrides instead of custom pay items?
Use pension overrides to correct pensionable pay and pension contribution values. Other pay item corrections may still require a different process, depending on the correction type.