Getting a bank account is essential and we've gone into this in detail in Arriving in Cambridge.
The official university bank is Barclays (Cambridge map), but you can choose any bank you like. The main ones are HSBC, Lloyds, Santander and Halifax. The UK also has 'building societies', which you can read about here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Building_society.
You can withdraw money from all bank cashpoints/ATMs free of charge but beware of private ATMs, which should warn you of the charge before you use them. The nearest ATM (Barclays) is by the West Cafe (Hauser Forum Cafe) in the West Cambridge Site.
Pay day is on the 26th of each month, or the Friday before if the 26th lands on a weekend or bank holiday. You are paid directly into your bank account. Information on salary policies can be found here: https://www.hr.admin.cam.ac.uk/hr-staff/information-staff/staff-guide.
You can sign up for online payslips through your raven login. More details are given here: http://www.hr.admin.cam.ac.uk/pay-benefits/online-payslips.
Travel claims must include all receipts from your travel and expenses. There are maximum reimbursement amounts that can be claimed depending on the length of stay and the location. Full details can be found at:
On the back of the expense claim form.
The IoA Finance staff are David Savidge and Sue Leatherbarrow. They can be found in Hoyle H04. Check with David and Sue for any questions that you have.
Expense claim forms can be found in the plastic holder on the wall next to the HO4 door, or you can print one from the bottom of the IoA Travel Claim Info page.
Collate travel and expense receipts.
Fill in travel claim form
Your PI/Supervisor/Boss must sign off on all travel claims before you submit them to the Finance staff.
You will be reimbursed by direct deposit to your bank account. You will receive an email with a .pdf notice of your reimbursement, usually on a Wednesday or Thursday. The money should clear into your bank by the following Monday.
If you pre-pay travel or hotel bills well in advance you can submit a separate claim for these before you travel. This means you get reimbursed for these earlier and can keep your credit card bill under control. You shouldn't have to be cash-short or dig into your personal funds to cover delays in being reimbursed.
Rather than trying to squash all expenses into the small boxes on the claim form you can put them together on a spreadsheet and print that off to submit with the claim, writing 'see spreadsheet' in the claim form boxes instead.
Convert any foreign currency receipt amounts into UK pounds using rates from your card transactions so you submit a total in pounds only. Then you are reimbursed at the rate you paid, rather than leaving it up to the University finance office to pick the rate.
If a claim takes longer than a month to process it's too long, longer than a credit card bill cycle. Do follow up with David and Sue.
It's good practice to keep a copy of all your receipts and claim (hard or digital copy). I've never known a claim to go missing though.
Travel for observing for STFC-funded and some non-STFC-funded telescopes is funded by the PATT grant. The details of this can be found on this IoA webpage (Raven login required): http://local.ast.cam.ac.uk/administration/patt-grant. The PATT grant covers only one observer, so if somebody is already scheduled to go observing the funds won't cover you to join them, even if they're from another institute.
The University provides Travel Insurance for all work-related travel outside the UK. For every trip simply fill in the form at this webpage: https://www.insurance.admin.cam.ac.uk/insurance-guidance/travel-insurance. You will need your employee number, which you can find on your payslip.
The University runs a pension scheme called USS (http://www.pensions.admin.cam.ac.uk/). This is a guaranteed pension scheme so you will be paid on retirement regardless of USS going belly-up. Recently it has changed to an 'average salary' pension, rather than a 'final salary' pension. So you are paid your pension based on the average salary you received over a certain time within your work duration at Cambridge. Previously it was the final salary your pension payout was based on.
You do not have to do tax returns in the UK -- it is calculated automatically for you. Talk to Joy if you have any specific queries about taxes.
Put your gross annual salary into the website below and it will tell you how much tax you will pay and what you are left with afterwards per month (and per week)
If you change address during your time at Cambridge you need to update your details not only with UC payroll (can do through Raven) but also with the tax department. It doesn't necessarily happen automatically through payroll. See this link for how to do this.
https://www.gov.uk/tell-hmrc-change-of-details/change-name-or-address
The trade union representing academics in Cambridge is UCU Cambridge. Please talk to Emily Sandford (on the astro postdoc committee and the UCU Cambridge executive committee; es835@cam.ac.uk) if you have questions about UCU or are interested in joining.