A REVIEW of payroll systems at Church House, Westminster, is to be carried out after an error by a junior member of staff meant that pay day was delayed by 24 hours for thousands of the clergy.
Late on Tuesday evening, a brief email was sent to the Church of England’s stipendiary clergy — numbering about 7000 — by the director of finance, Mark Barker. It informed recipients: “As a result of human error, payments due to clergy on Wednesday will be delayed by 24 hours. We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause. Any bank charges incurred as a result will of course be reimbursed.” Contact details were provided. The announcement was also published on the Church of England website.
As the evening progressed, word spread on social media, and some of the clergy reported that they had not received any email. A spokesman said on Wednesday that it might have been caught by spam filters or been sent to email addresses that had not been updated.
The reaction was one of alarm, particularly among the clergy who had scheduled direct-debit payments to leave their accounts on payday. Questions were also raised about how such an error had come to pass.
On Wednesday, a Church House spokesman said that the error had been made by a junior member of staff who had forgotten to complete a task. This had not been noticed until it was too late to fix the BACS process by which clergy are paid. Staff were not confident that an instant payment would work; so it was decided to communicate the fact of a 24-hour delay to clergy. Bishops had been informed.
“We will fix whatever is broken,” he said. It would “only be fair” to help clergy concerned about the impact on their credit scores.
A review of systems would take place, he said. It was a junior person who had made the error and “a system should be in place to make sure that, if they do that, someone more senior catches it.” He said that the junior person would not lose their job.
The payments have now been made and will arrive in accounts on Thursday.
Bishops and other senior leaders responded swiftly to the news on Tuesday night. The Bishop of Blackburn, the Rt Revd Philip North, was the first to urge clergy “struggling” to get in touch with Bishop’s House “at once”.
The Bishop of Leeds, the Rt Revd Nick Baines, emailed all clergy early on Wednesday morning, writing that any in need of an “emergency payment today” could receive one from the diocese — before 5 p. m. if the request was received by noon.
The response was praised by the Team Rector of St Wilfrid’s, Harrogate, the Revd Gary Waddington, who has emailed questions to the Church Commissioners in his capacity as a General Synod member. They include queries about the nature of the payroll system in place, the extent of oversight provided by senior members of staff, and the support offered to the person responsible for the error. He has asked that the First Church Estates Commissioner, Alan Smith, should make a statement about the incident at this month’s Synod meeting.
The episode has raised questions about the extent to which clergy live “pay cheque to pay cheque”. The Clergy Support Trust is now supporting almost one in five serving C of E clergy.
