Purchase of Additional Annual Leave Scheme FAQ's for employees

The purchase of additional annual leave scheme has been introduced as a staff benefit to increase the flexibility of planned time off. This scheme is available to most staff, excluding staff employed by locally managed schools, and allows you to buy additional annual leave.

Additional leave is treated as a salary sacrifice arrangement. Staff agree to reduce their salary and we will provide up to 10 days additional annual leave each year (pro-rata for part time staff), subject to the operational requirements which must remain the priority. The additional leave purchased is paid for through a reduction in salary equivalent to the salary for the number of days leave being taken.

A salary sacrifice arrangement varies your terms and conditions of employment for the duration of the agreement. It does so by reducing your gross pay by the value of the additional leave purchased and in turn increases your leave entitlement. Once the additional leave purchased is paid for in full, your terms and conditions of employment will revert back to those prior to the salary sacrifice.

Yes, an additional 74 hours/ 10 days (pro rata for part time employees) can be purchased by any employee (excluding staff employed by locally managed schools).

Complete the Purchase of Additional Annual Leave Request and Approval Form and submit to your line manager for consideration.

Note that by completing and submitting the Purchase of Additional Annual Leave and Approval Form that, if approved, this form (together with contractual provision) also constitutes your consent to any applicable salary adjustment.

As you have to specify the actual dates you wish to purchase, we will use the salary due to be received on those dates to determine the cost of your leave.

We will use your hourly rate of pay and multiply this by the number of hours leave you wish to purchase. The total cost will be deducted on a monthly basis from your salary over the remainder of your annual leave year.

Calculate the cost

The Scheme is open all the time so applications can be submitted at any time from the start of your birthday leave year, to your line manager for consideration. If the request is approved the deductions will be made from the remaining number of months left in your leave year. All additional leave purchased must be paid for within the same annual leave period it is purchased for. The sooner you apply, the more time you will have to pay back, as the deductions will be spread over more months.

For example: If an application is approved for an additional 5 days leave on 1st July and the employees birthday is 31st December, the 5 days will be deducted over that six month period.

Approval of additional annual leave is at the discretion of the relevant Line Manager and is subject to the operational needs of the service. Your line manager will assess the operational feasibility of granting the request. This will include a full assessment of whether or not the additional annual leave can be accommodated within the employee’s annual leave year, taking into account the operational needs of the department.

There is no automatic right to additional annual leave, however every application will be fully considered on its merits.

This is a discretionary scheme, however, an employee may ask for a review of the decision and this can be requested by writing to the Assistant Chief Executive, People Management. The employee will need to clearly outline their grounds for requesting the review of the decision.

Once an agreement has been entered into it will be valid for the relevant leave year. Once purchased, the leave cannot be “sold back” to the Council.

No, you can only apply for future dates.

No, you can request to take anything from 1 day to 10 days additional leave in the full leave year (max 10 days for full-time staff, pro-rata for part-time staff, i.e. if you work 4 days per week = max 8 days). However it can only be taken as full days.

No.

You will pay Tax and National Insurance on the reduced pay. By reducing salary, the amount of tax and National Insurance paid also reduces. At the end of the leave period salary is no longer reduced by this amount.

By purchasing additional leave you receive a reduced salary and will pay reduced pensions contributions. You can request to purchase the ‘lost’ pension by electing to pay Additional Pension Contributions.

The Absence Team will let you know once your application is approved and will provide the pensionable pay figure. The cost and an application to buy lost pension may be obtained on line at: www.lgpsmember.org

f you elect to purchase the ‘lost’ pension it must be made within 30 days from the date of the letter received from The Absence Team, setting out details of the pensionable pay and scheme details. The cost will be split 1/3 employee and 2/3 employer.

If the application to purchase additional pension is made after 30 days, the full cost will be met by you.

You will need to specify what dates you wish to take the additional leave and this leave must be taken during your leave year.

No, a separate request must be made for each leave year.

If having purchased additional annual leave you fail to take it before the end of the relevant leave year the leave will be lost, with no reimbursement. Managers and employees must ensure the additional leave can be accommodated prior to the manager’s approval.

Normal arrangements for sickness during annual leave will apply to the purchased annual leave.

The total salary is reduced until the end of the leave period by the proportion for the number of days being taken. The monthly salary is then adjusted accordingly to spread the cost of the additional leave agreed so that it is paid for in full by the end of the leave year period.

The Absence Team will provide exact figures for the deduction once a request has been approved and notify the employee prior to the deductions commencing.

The deduction that will be taken from the staff member’s salary each pay period will be taken over the number of available months remaining within the relevant leave year period and will be calculated as follows:

Daily contracted hours x hourly rate as at time of application

Example:

A member of staff submits a request on the 1st April 2019 and is successful in their application to buy 5 days additional leave. They will be taking this additional leave in December (02.12.19 to 06.12.19), and their birthday is in February (28th). The staff member’s contracted hours are 7.4 per day, and their hourly rate as at time of application is £10.33. Deductions from the staff member’s pay are calculated as follows:

7.4 hours x £10.33 x 5 days = £382.21

Payments to be deducted over 11 months (remaining months in the leave year), commencing in April 2019 with the final payment being taken in February 2020.

Monthly deduction = 382.21 ÷ 11 = £34.75 per month

Note: if you apply for the additional leave after payroll run in that month the deduction cannot be taken and will result in the cost being taken over the remaining available months within the leave year period.

No, where an employee requests to purchase additional annual leave, this will result in a reduction to monthly salary for the remainder of the leave year.

As with normal annual leave, part-time worker’s requests to purchase additional annual leave will be pro-rata (i.e. if you work 3 days per week, you can purchase up to 6 of your days).

In the event that an employee’s salary changes during a leave year, the agreed additional annual leave purchase amount will remain unchanged. The calculation will be based on your salary as at the point the purchase of additional leave is agreed by your manager.

This is to enable your manager to consider the leave request and to plan the work within your team around this.

No. One does not take priority over the other.

Members of staff can request unpaid leave to cover short notice and unexpected situations but additional annual leave is designed to enable staff to take time off for a specific, planned reason on a previously agreed date. The cost of purchasing additional annual leave is spread over a period of months whereas unpaid leave is deducted in full in the month the leave it taken or the next available pay.

No. You will be eligible to purchase additional leave on your return to work following your maternity leave, subject to the normal rules of the scheme.

As taking additional leave involves reducing salaries, staff should be aware that if their salary falls below the Lower Earnings Limit, their entitlement to state benefits (such as state pension, statutory maternity pay, etc.) will be affected.

Staff should consider this before deciding to take additional leave. Any queries should be raised with the Absence Team.

Employees leaving the Council will be reimbursed any outstanding additional annual leave purchased and payments will be recovered in line with contractual provision if the employee has taken in excess of their purchased additional annual leave and contractual leave entitlement.

The rules and procedures, including the request and approval form, can be found on the purchase of additional annual leave page.