Spotting something that looks off on your payslip is more common than people expect, and knowing the right steps to check and resolve it can save you from either losing money or panicking unnecessarily.
Common mistakes worth checking for
Look out for an incorrect tax code, a gross pay figure that doesn’t match your agreed salary or hours worked, missing overtime or bonus payments, or an unexpected new deduction that hasn’t been explained.
Start with your employer or payroll team
In most cases, the fastest way to resolve a payslip issue is to raise it directly with your employer’s HR or payroll department, since they can see the underlying calculation and correct genuine errors quickly.
When it’s a tax code issue specifically
If the issue seems to be your tax code rather than a payroll error, for example if HMRC has assigned the wrong code, you may need to contact HMRC directly, they can correct the code going forward and confirm whether you’re owed a refund for any overpaid tax.
Keep records as you go
Keep copies of your payslips and any correspondence about a query, this makes it much easier to demonstrate a pattern or resolve a dispute if a mistake isn’t a one-off.
The takeaway
A payslip mistake is usually fixable once identified, whether it’s a payroll error or a tax code issue. Checking your payslip regularly, rather than assuming it’s always correct, is what catches these issues before they become a bigger problem.