Over Payment Of Holiday Pay

seamus_2

Hello All,

I left my job about 5 weeks ago.Shortly after this they contacted me telling me i had been overpaid in lieu of holiday payment,and for me to send them a cheque covering the overpayment.
However i have spent the money thinking it was mine.I have told them this but they still are telling me to repay the money.Does anybody know where i stand.

I would appreciate any advice on the matter,

Many thanks .

skylight

You need to pay it back if it was a mistake (and this sounds as if it was).

However, like another thread mentions, you will have paid NI and Tax on it, so you ex-employer cannot expect you to pay that back.

But in the first instance, ask them to breakdown exactly the figures - how they came to pay you what they did and how they have worked out an overpayment.

Then check these figures against yours and query them if they are not right.

withabix

How much are we talking about?

If it's a small amount, I would just ignore them. They're hardly going to take you to court for £100 or so.

After all, it was your employer's responsibility to ensure that any necessary deductions were made in your final pay when you left.

Boomdocker

iainkirk wrote:

How much are we talking about?

If it's a small amount, I would just ignore them. They're hardly going to take you to court for £100 or so.

After all, it was your employer's responsibility to ensure that any necessary deductions were made in your final pay when you left.

True, but would you apply that same theory if you were stopped in error. The decent thing to do is pay it back.

dmg24

If it's a small amount, I would just ignore them. They're hardly going to take you to court for £100 or so.

I wouldn't assume this. I know someone who was taken to court by a certain well known chain of chemists for £30!

I agree with the posters who have said to pay up (as long as you definitely do owe them the money!), after all you may need a reference from them one day.

If it is a problem to pay them all in one go then arrange to pay them in instalments. As long as your offer is fair in relation to what you can afford, then if they did choose to pursue legal action, they would get nowhere.

GIRLPOWER_2

we overpaid someone a few months back my fault as when I put the bacs payments through I paid 2 staff members wages into his account.. I did not know untill the staff member who was not paid said 2 weeks later I had no wages afew weeks ago!

anyway by tht time he has left and I contacted our bank who said they could do nothing and I contat him who said I do not have it I have spent it.. my only option was to take him to court but we decided he was now on the dole and you cannot get blood out of stone so had to write it off... so it depends on if you think they will take you to small claims court or not and if they have a case against you or not. Ask for a break down in the first and see what that says.

HTH

richardw

I'd get them to set out their calculations clearly on paper, so you can check them in detail.

funkmaster_2

Employees used to accrue holiday pay - that is that you would work for a period of time earning holiday pay so that you could take it the next year. Then it was decided that employers had to pay employees holiday pay immediately - this meant that if someone started working for me this week and wanted two weeks holiday straight away they would get paid for it. That is now the law. The employee would effectively owe the employer work.

This is ok as long as that person continued to work for me long enough to earn those two weeks they had just had off with pay. If they didn't, they owed me the money back. So if an employee earns 4 weeks over a full year but took two weeks off in January they would have to work until the end of June to earn it. I could take that out of their last pay packet - but what if they only worked one day in the last pay period? There would be a deficit, so how else do employers get it back? They have to ask for a cheque.

It is frustrating sometime because it is all geared towards being fair to the employee (which I think is correct because people need money to live) but when things like this happen it's as if employers are doing it to be awkward. 99.9% of the time they aren't. It's their money that's all. You'd be surprised how many employees of mine ask where their week in hand is when they finish working for me!!!

Another example is when someone hands their notice in and their contract stipulates 2 weeks notice (which is still nowhere near enough to find someone suitable for their job) but they say they have to leave after 3 days notice because their new job starts, or they just don't turn it for work. There is nothing employers can do. If it was the other way round there would be hell to pay!

Having said all that, I agree - get it in writing. But please pay the money back if it isn't yours.

seamus_2

Thanks everybody for your words of wisdom,the amount in question is £900.00,but as i have told my old firm,i don't have the money any more.

mancitychick

If you refuse to pay their only option really is court unless of course they choose to write it of. One place I worked overpaid someone who was leaving, they gave them 2 months salary instead of one. She too said she had spent it, but offered to pay it back at £25 per month, however she never actually coughed up. In the end we decided to write it off but when a reference request came through for her a good while later, she got 2 lines top.

Personally I would offer to repay the money at a rate you could afford, chances are they will accept this as long as it is a resonable offer. Bear in mind that may need them for a reference at some point in the future. I know they cannot give you a bad reference without just cause but they could make things difficult for you.

seamus_2

Thanks again for all your advice,
one more thing,does anybody know anything about the legal term''change of position''.I've been told by a colleage that as i have spent the money on a holiday and gifts for my family,this term applies.
Many thanks Seamus