Pradeep Eranti
Fernanda Bajanca
Pradeep Eranti
Lidia Natalia Trusilewicz
Unforeseen salary reduction
Dear all,
I have just received a message from the Head of Finance of the University of Oxford asking me to pay back 466£ per month (ie 2800£ for the first sic months of my Fellowship) and reduce my next salaries accordingly. I’m devastated (as well as extremely disappointed) by this piece of news which puts me and my family in a very difficult situation. I’ve re-read my contract (which gives sums in euros with a conservative exchange rate of 1.55 € for 1£) over and over again and see no mention of these rather opaque ‘technicalities of MC Fellowships’ the person refers to. My net salary today is 3.100£ net (including NI, living, family and mobility allowances which are all taxed but without pension which I still pay in France). I moved to the UK with my family in June and based on my first three salaries (which I had discussed well in advance with the MC national contact points, HMRC, the European teams, payroll as well as other MC Fellows), I took up a rent and registered with a nursery for full time childcare. How I am supposed to carry out my research project now if my salary if reduced by almost 20%? May I also add that this comes on top of another problem which emerged last week concerning my research expenses and which may also be of interest to you: I learnt that I was only entitled to approx 12.000£ for the two years of my Fellowship as the University applied the same conservative exchange rate of 1,55€ for 1£. Except that I may not be paid the difference at the end of the project as the funds need to be spent in the course of my Fellowship. With the current exchange rate this could mean up to 4.000£ difference (i.e. a conference, a research trip to the US…all which I planned in my application). Could you help me out with this? Thank you very much for your precious feebdack,
Very best,
Charlotte Ribeyrol (Marie Curie Fellow, Oxford)
PS: sorry if you have received this message twice but I wasn't too sure how best to post this message
7 Comments
Hi Charlotte,
Here is a document (updated 2012) on Frequently Asked Questions to the Marie Curie Actions Financial Guidelines.
Please, see Q16 (page 9): The employment contract of a recruited researcher is based on a currency other than Euro. Because of variations in the exchange rates during the project implementation, there are differences between the amount actually paid to the researchers and the one established under Category A "Monthly living and mobility allowance" as per the Grant Agreement and its Annexes. Are any adjustments allowed?
Hope this helps,
Mariachiara
Hi Charlotte,
I think you should get a better exchange rate.
In my contract for a Marie Curie ITN Early Stage Researcher it is noted that the exchange rate will be updated every year. I started in July 2015 with a similar conservative exchange rate of £1=1.5€, but this July the rate was adjusted to £1=1.25 which resulted in a significant increase of my net income. As the actual exchange rate dropped massively because of the Brexit, a exchange rate of 1.55 is simply ridiculous. But, I don't know how you can get a fair rate, who you can contact...
Regards,
Jannis
Dear Charlotte,
Unfortunately, I cannot help you but you - or another MC fellow in the list - might be able to help me. I am at King's College London. I was surprised by your email since it is the first time someone really talks about salary! I have not been able to solve any of my queries through the university and have not succeeded either in finding someone who could help. How can I contact the MC national contact point? Are there any MC fellows who want to talk about this?
My net salary is £2400 (exchange rate 1€=£0.69) monthly and I think I am over-taxed. My brute is £4600ish (living allowance+mobility allowance+family allowance). Some £1100 go to KCL taxes (NI and superannuation), some £600 go to my taxes (NI and superannuation), but then I am also paying £600 more on annual salary taxes. Could someone please tell me if this is OK?
Thank you,
Ainoa
Ainoa, if this is any help: your net/brute of just over 50% seems comparable to my own experience as fellow in France. In fact, I receive slighly less than 50% of the brute grant, and in addition have to pay a semi-private health insurance that complements the public system. It would be interesting to know by how much the ratio varies across different European countries, with national taxation regimes. Still, probably everyone would feel they are overtaxed!
Cheers, Daniel
Ainoa,
I am a MC fellow at Imperial College, and my annual salary is around 52k (it would be 58k, but around 6k will go to the USS pension scheme), for a monthly net of a bit less than 3000£. It's quite awful that yours is much lower. I'm quite sure you should ask somebody from the REA office to have a look into that. As for contacts, can't you just use the "chat" within the participants portal? It's worth giving it a try! Best of luck
Hello all,
I am an experienced researcher within an ITN in a company in Italy. I have similar problems, since I finally receive as net income around 30% of the total brute (the rest goes for my own taxes and "company costs" for having me here). Somebody in the MC portal told me that taxation greatly depends on the type of contract that you have. Nobody from my working institution, the project coordination or the Italian contact office has been able to explain me how taxes work in more detail and why I get a salary that is lower than PhD fellows in other countries.
It is amazing to see the variations between countries and the lack of information around taxes in many countries... Just writing to share my experience, if anybody has more info, please follow the discussion!
Laura
Hi Charlotte,
Here is a document (updated 2012) on Frequently Asked Questions to the Marie Curie Actions Financial Guidelines.
Please, see Q16 (page 9): The employment contract of a recruited researcher is based on a currency other than Euro. Because of variations in the exchange rates during the project implementation, there are differences between the amount actually paid to the researchers and the one established under Category A "Monthly living and mobility allowance" as per the Grant Agreement and its Annexes. Are any adjustments allowed?
http://ec.europa.eu/research/mariecurieactions/funded-projects/how-to-manage/funded-projects/how-to-manage/general_documents/frequently_asked_questions_to_the_marie_curie_actions_financial_guidelines.pdf
Hope this helps,
Mariachiara