Payment of lump sum at the end of contract

Hi, you should have a clause on your contract about that, if not, you can ask in finance office, Here at Bath, the University estimates the difference pound-euro ( we have an exchange rate of 1.5, which is also unrealistic) and pays back that money every two years,

Hello everyone,

I'm also quite interested in this. What would for example happen if the contract is terminated before the end of the contract? Does anyone have experience with that?

Hi Andreas et al., 

I received such a lump sum in March 2017 although my contract with the University of Bristol ended in September 2016. During the 3 years of my contract (including Brexit referendum, etc.), the exchange rate changed several times. So, please check with your Finance or HR Dep on when the payment will be made. In my case, the exchange rate for this lump sum was determined by the rate on the last day of my fellowship to calculate my lump sum. Please remember to update them with your address, and bank account (in case your British account has already been closed). Also, this lump sum is taxable. (and pensionable)

Que Anh 

I received an email from Finance at the end of my contract in August 2015 saying that due to the strong rate exchange (Euro vs Pound) I will receive no lump sum at the end of my contract. Moreover, they even told me that they could not afford to pay me the last month. I struggled several weeks with that, and finally agreed that: instead of using the rate based on the last day of my fellowship, as Que Anh said, they used the exchange rates of the specific dates when they received the money (I think institutions received money from the comssion more than once per year). Then, I could have my last payment, and some extra money,

Cheers,

Luis

so far for your comments!

I also figured out that the official rule from the European Commision is, that the full amount (calculated in Euro) has to be paid to the fellow. This is why I think they have to use the exchange rates at the dates where they have received the money, but not the exchange rate at the end of the fellowship!?

It is strange that no clear rule exists. Anyway I think it is illegal if the Universities try to make money and don't pay you the full amount.

I will also ask our finance department, but it would be better to get information from an independent source as well.

Andreas

There is a clear answer to that: According to the Annotated Model Grant agreement, the research offices have to use the *official* monthly average EUR-GBP exchange rates which are published by the European Central Bank. At the end of the grant, they have to look up the last 24 monthly rates (i.e. for the last 2 years) published in that list and use them to calculate the balance payment.

Here is how to find them (below). The Annotated Model Grant agreement is the basis of your grant.

" ECB euro reference exchange rate: Pound sterling (GBP) "

https://www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/policy_and_exchange_rates/euro_reference_exchange_rates/html/eurofxref-graph-gbp.en.html

Hello I think that rules are quite clear for any EU funding. Maybe some isntitutions explain it by their own manner but officially beneficiaries with accounting established in a currency other than the euro must convert the costs recorded in their accounts into euro, at the average of the daily exchange rates published in the C series of the Official Journal of the European Union, calculated over the corresponding reporting period. If no daily euro exchange rate is published in the Official Journal of the European Union for the currency in question, they must be converted at the average of the monthly accounting rates published on the Commission’s website, calculated over the corresponding reporting period. And this is calculated to the date, when money is transfered what happens in several parts: I think that first part is transfered in the begginning and the other part in the middle of fellowship. Both parts represent around 95% of the total amount. The remaining 5% are transferred to the institute/university when the final report is handed over to the EU.

Hi Stefan and Karel,

Many thanks for your clarification(s). Please, could you kindly help by providing some documental evidence/ online references supporting your aforesaid comments? Such references would be quite useful for us. (We can forward them to our administrators, in case some institutions hadn't taken good cognizance of such regulations previously). Many thanks in advance.

Kind regards,

Sundar

thanks a lot for your comments, they are very useful!

I am not sure but I see a small contradiction between your 2 posts: First, Stefan you mentioned that the University has to use the monthly averaged exchange rate. According to this, I would suspect that 1/24 th of the grant money (as written in the Grant agreement) is converted every month, and resulting in different amounts in pounds every month, and by adding them all up gives the total amount. But this seems to be a bit in contradiction to Karel's comment who pointed out that this is related to the payment dates which essentially define the reporting period (Side remark: Actuallt I only have to do reporting once, at the end of the fellowhip). Sorry for the confusion but I still didn't get it completly.

Best,

Andreas

Horizon 2020 Annotated Model Grant Agreement

I., Chapter 4, Section 2: Rights and Obligations related to the Grant Administration, Art. 20.6.

In my version (v1.6.1, of 16 June 2014) this is on p. 142.

In the current version (v4, 21.4.2017) it is on p. 182.

Download here

http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/portal/desktop/en/funding/reference_docs.html#h2020-grants-manual-amga

This is about final reporting: i.e. the final balance payment at the end of the grant. It does not matter at what rates the payments were actually converted during the grant -- i.e. it all has to be recalcucated against the average rates, looking back, at the end of the grant.

Thanks a lot for that!

Dear all

Thank you for all the useful information. In the case of our consortium we have two scenarios regarding two of the UK based partners, one being a university and the other being an SME. I work at Newcastle Universty and the policy here is to adjust the exchange rate every three months. However my colleague who works for the SME had the exchange specified in her contract and will recieve this lump some amount  at the end of the project (which will be taxed). This was clearly mentioned in our initial contracts and I guess this is done at the discretion of the partners.

Best regards

Arathi