Update on school pay performance

The latest Novopay complaints reports show the school payroll system is maintaining a steady performance.

Minister Responsible for Novopay Steven Joyce today released the reports on complaints and notifications received in regards to Pay Periods 3 and 4 of the schools’ payroll.  Pay Period 3, was paid on the morning of 30 April, and paid 87,571 people a total of $165.44 million. 

The report for that pay shows complaints and notifications were received regarding 0.11 per cent of staff across the country, eight staff were notified as not paid, 30 were overpaid, and 55 underpaid. Affected staff were from 55 schools or 2.27 per cent of schools in the payroll system.

Pay Period 4, was paid on the morning of 14 May, and paid 85,449 people a total of $165.83 million. 

The report for that pay shows complaints and notifications were received regarding 0.18 per cent of staff across the country, 27 staff were notified as not paid, 46 were overpaid, and 84 underpaid. Affected staff were from 138 schools or 5.70 per cent of schools in the payroll system.

“Both pay periods were well within the 0.5 per cent acceptable steady state error rate as defined by the Novopay technical review,” Mr Joyce says.

“The performance of Pay Period 4 would’ve been better if 39 principals had received a leadership payment allowance they were meant to be receiving. This mistake came about due to a one-off data entry error. These principals will receive the allowance payment in the next fortnightly pay.

Mr Joyce says work is continuing to further improve the delivery of the school payroll system, including revising the service centre model and resolving outstanding overpayments and leave balances.

As at 27 April this year, there were 18,058 overpayments worth $18.8 million dating back to when Novopay first started. More than half of that debt ($10 million) has so far been repaid, and the current repayment rate is around $1 million a month. $167,992 of the debt has been written off (due to each debt being below $100). No-one is being referred to debt collection agencies.

Mr Joyce says sector and school feedback was also being used to improve the process around school annual accounts which last year were affected by Novopay errors. The Education Ministry has been providing additional support to schools.

Resolving leave balances continues to be complex as each ticket often has multiple issues making them harder to clear quickly.  There are 3573 outstanding tickets still to be cleared – down from around 5000 in November last year.

^              This was higher due to the one-off voluntary bonding error
*               Start of school year pay 2014
**             Start of school year pay 2013
#              This was higher due to one-off Principal Career Structure payment error
+              This was higher due to one-off Principal Leadership payment error