Wages Overpayment - Pls Help

jet77

Hi,

I was overpaid by my former employers (local authority) back in June of last year. I received an invoice for £523.50. I didn't even realise that I had been overpaid by so much as the money just disappeared in to my overdraft

I replied to the invoice by e-mail (a copy of which I can't find!) to say that I would be able to repay by £1 per month because this was all that I could afford but did not receive a reply.

I have today (6 months on) received a Final Notice through the post saying "If proceedings are issued, judgment may be obtained against you, which may cause problems with credit references in the future."

I haven't got that much money - in fact I'm just under £5k in debt and unemployed

What should I do? Please help.

Fire_Fox

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http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

Sazzyukrafc

I had the same happen to me, it was about £450, I didn't realise because I was buying a house at the time and money was going in and out all the time. I pay £10 a month.

However, I received all these threatening letters too, my past employers seem to be quite useless, I'd send so many letters and never get a reply until I'd get the same letter as you've receieved. I've had them letters many times because they've ignored things I've sent to them. Once I was on holiday and came home to THREE threatening letters because they said they couldnt process the £10 that month...very over the top.

My advice is not to worry. If you can't afford to pay the money then you can't afford it, it's their fault for the over payment and they have to work with you to work out how much you can pay back. Write a letter offering to pay in installments and they'll probably send you a form to fill in. Give them a ring now and say a letter is in the post. Also, keep a copy of everything you send and send everything recorded if you can afford to.

Roobarb73

I do feel for you, but they are entitled to it back and I can't believe you really expected they would accept a repayment plan that would take them over 40 years to get it back?

I think being able to pay in instalments is one thing, but it has to be reasonable.

getmore4less

Do you agree with the overpayment?

Have you checked they have the calculation correct


Why don't people check they are getting paid properly? its simple.
You should get a pay notice to say how much you are going to get.
You should check that payment is made.

alenax

Roobarb73 wrote: »

I do feel for you, but they are entitled to it back and I can't believe you really expected they would accept a repayment plan that would take them over 40 years to get it back?

I think being able to pay in instalments is one thing, but it has to be reasonable.

I think they have to accept any payment plan offered. And if the OP is unemployed, then they're probably on about £50/60 p/w, which is a lot less money than it sounds.

Roobarb73

alenax wrote: »

I think they have to accept any payment plan offered. And if the OP is unemployed, then they're probably on about £50/60 p/w, which is a lot less money than it sounds.

No they don't. I would not advise a client to accept an offer to pay in instalments like that - if the employee didn't come up with an offer that would repay the debt fairly quickly I would tell them to take it to court and then the court would determine what is a reasonable time to pay - and IME I don't think £1 a month to repay a debt of this size would be deemed so.

And regardless of the OP's circumstances, which I have every sympathy for, it is not reasonable to expect the employer over 40 years to get their money back. This is now a debt they owe and it has to take priority with their other debts.

I am really not being unsympathetic - I am in a 2 income household and I would have a canary if I suddenly had to find over £500 and spitting chips if it was due to someone else's error - and I have also had more than one period in my life of unemployment and having to survive on JSA, so I do know how hard it is.

I think that if I was the creditor and I received an offer to pay of £1 a month, I would just think they were not treating it seriously and would take it further.

continualdiamond

Had this happen to my OH few years back. He was actually paid for a job he never started as he accepted the job offer and submitted bank details, but then turned the job down as got a better offer.

Stupidly he waited for them to contact him, totally ignoring my advice. We then moved house and the people who rented our previous place didn't forward on mail and we thought as we'd notified everyone of our move no mail would go to our old place. Of course mail did go to our old place wanting the money back.

Checked our credit rating just by chance 6 mths down the line, had a CCJ on it, after doing some digging found out it was to do with this wage and it had looked like we'd been ignoring the letters, but never got them.

So we contacted them and they set up a repayment plan of £10 a month. Still paying it back, 3 years down the track.