Help - My employer is trying to make me pay for my tuition!?

Question

My employer does have a tuition reimbursement program and the cap is $5,500 per qualified employee per year. Last year I took few classes and the tuition was close to $5k. However, I only contacted my HR at the end of my last class in December, so the reimbursement did not get processed until January of 2008, in which I was approved and reimbursed for my $5k.

This year, I am trying to get another 4k to be reimbursed knowing I might only have $1,500 left for 2008; however, my HR person said she could not help me because I have only had about $500 left to use for 2008. I was shocked to find out about this. The reason was, according to her, my 2007 tuition reimbursement came out from my 2008’s budget b/c it was paid in 2008 even though the form I submitted was for 2007.

I am every upset and not sure if the HR person is trying to give me hard time or this is it for me. This information is new to me and I was not aware

Answer 1

Make sure you have full documentation about how this years budget was spent on last years training - and then submit this years claim on 31st December (so they take it out of next years budget).

In my experience, HR (and Finance) are children who like to play games. One game I learned very early on is called 'Budgets' .. every year each individual Manager is asked to calculate their likley spend for the following year. HR takes those figures and presents them to the board. The broad says 'no, we can't afford that, cut it in half' .. so HR grants each individual manager half of what they said they need ... in order for the Manager to play this game, they MUST submit a Budget for AT LEAST double the minimum they actually need .. sounds like your Manager got caught out on the Training Budget :-)

Answer 2

you really must look at your employers rules for this.