off of repayment-can it be turned down?

Legacy_user

Hey, I'm posting on behalf of a friend. Basically he has has just had a call from a debt recovery agent saying they are calling on behalf of his ex employer as he apparently owes them £400 in overapaid wages.

This is the first he's heard though apparently they sent letters to his old address despite having his current address, and he left back in september too. They were demanding the full amount but my friend is a student and only has his loan (which after rent leaves about £100 p/w) he is also paying other debts and overpaid housing benefit at £50 per month. For the work debt he offered to pay £20 p/m but they were really pushing him for the full amount. If you make an offer to pay can they turn it down flat and demand the amount in full?

Also does the fact he didn't know he had been overpaid and spent the money as he needed it to live on (was on a year out) count for anything?

DarkConvict

You pay what you can afford is the golden rule.

The fact he has spent it doesn't matter, the same happened to me, instead i had underpaid tax, employer assuming the wrong code based on a form i filled in to the best of my knowledge was correct. I have £1000 to pay back over 12 months. I was on placement in London so it all went on foods/rent/bills, very tight budget on a placement salary (~50% normal wage). Im also a 3rd year student so on loan too.

He can just offer to pay what he can afford, he is allowed to do it, OFT guidelines 2.6f
f. pressurising debtors to pay in full, in unreasonably large instalments,
or to increase payments when they are unable to do so
http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/business_leaflets/consumer_credit/oft664.pdf

They can say they reject it, but if he can get there payment details it is best he makes payments to them. Worth noting as he cannot paying full they can get a CCJ for it.

System

DarkConvict wrote: »

You pay what you can afford is the golden rule.

The fact he has spent it doesn't matter, the same happened to me, instead i had underpaid tax, employer assuming the wrong code based on a form i filled in to the best of my knowledge was correct. I have £1000 to pay back over 12 months. I was on placement in London so it all went on foods/rent/bills, very tight budget on a placement salary (~50% normal wage). Im also a 3rd year student so on loan too.

He can just offer to pay what he can afford, he is allowed to do it, OFT guidelines 2.6f
f. pressurising debtors to pay in full, in unreasonably large instalments,
or to increase payments when they are unable to do so
http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/business_leaflets/consumer_credit/oft664.pdf

Thanks for that. I've saved the link to show him.The other thing is, can they demand it be paid back in 6 months? He's happy to make repayments but doesn't feel he can clear it in 6 months?

GeorgeUK

They can ask whatever they want. What they get is a different matter. They will be getting paid on commission so the sooner it gets repaid, the better for them.

Has he requested proof of this overpayment and checked it?

He should not be trying to pay more than he can afford and if this takes longer than they would like, they do have the option of going to court. He can then show the court that he has been paying as much as he can afford so hopefully it shouldn't come to that as it would be a waste of the court's time.