Advice Needed - Overpayment of wages

[lukeBBW]

Short story is I left my previous employer on the 24th October last year. That was my official last day after my 2 weeks notice. For the last 4 weeks of this period I was off sick on work related stress and depression. My final pay was 3 days later, the 27th Oct. I was only paid £488 and that was less than I expected. I queried but they just said it was a mixture of sick pay and some holiday entitlement taken off.

I then went approx 6 weeks until i got another job and so had spent this money to live off while borrowing a lot more from parents.

Today i get a letter from my previous company saying they overpaid me on my last pay due to the payroll department not being informed of my leaving in time to accurately calculate my final months salary. So i apparently owe them £269.66.

I can't access my payslips nor my employment contract atm. So need to know where i stand?

A friend of mine has shown me this:

Found this which backs up what I was originally saying. I have highlighted the case law below.
If the employer seeks to recover an overpayment after the employee has left the company, the employee may be able to resist recovery on a legal principle known as estoppel, which prevents anyone from taking action on a matter that has been already settled. For the defence of estoppel to apply:
the employer must generally have made a representation of fact which led the employee to believe that he was entitled to treat that money as his own;
the employee must, in good faith, have "changed his position", in other words spent some or all of the money;
the payment must not have been primarily caused by the fault of the employee.
In County Council of Avon v Howlett a teacher was overpaid sick pay. He queried the payments at the time but was told they were correct. By the time the Council realised its mistake the teacher had spent most of the money. The Court of Appeal decided that the defence of estoppel prevented the Council from recovering the full amount of the overpayments.

Does anyone know/ have any experience of where I stand on this?

[tigerbaybluebird]

Tell Them Your skint and offer £1 per month as it was their mistake ..

[gandalf1927]

Ignore them

[blueblade]

Tell Them Your skint and offer £1 per month as it was their mistake ..

They can't force you to repay it immediately although, if they are correct, you will have to pay it back over time.

[lincoln blue]

I was overpaid nearly 2k on my retirement and just assumed it was part of my pension lump sum. They contacted me about six months later requesting repayment, I ignored the letter and have heard nothing again since, nearly twenty years.

[blueblade]

I was overpaid nearly 2k on my retirement and just assumed it was part of my pension lump sum. They contacted me about six months later requesting repayment, I ignored the letter and have heard nothing again since, nearly twenty years.

[Loya Jirga]

Tell Them Your skint and offer £1 per month as it was their mistake ..

From memory, you can pay back in any coin as long as it is silver (i.e. 20p a week). They can't force you to pay it all back immediately.

[insider]

Write back to them explaining due to the stress you were put under you are now consulting with a solicitor about constructive dismissal once this has been put into motion you will get back to them.

[lukeBBW]

Tell Them Your skint and offer £1 per month as it was their mistake ..

This.

- the payment must not have been primarily caused by the fault of the employee.

[Barry Dragon]

I got paid for 3 months after I finished, only came to light on the pay reviews. I hadnt noticed as I switched accounts when leaving the job. They sent me a letter asking for the wages back.

I wrote back asking them to breakdown the overpayment as they had made one error already I wanted to ensure that their new demands were correct also. Ask them to confirm holiday entitlement was correct. Basically make it sound like you are preparing information for your solicitor.

I never heard back. Make it alot of work for them so they cant be arsed to chase you for payment as it will cost more to get the money from you than the amount they will get back. As the amount is only small I doubt they will bother to reply to your request for a breakdown.

[lukeBBW]

I got paid for 3 months after I finished, only came to light on the pay reviews. I hadnt noticed as I switched accounts when leaving the job. They sent me a letter asking for the wages back.

I shall start with this...thanks for the advice

[blue matt]

tell them

No Blue - no repayment

and speak to Tan


the more on our side the better