Overpaid by previous employer, should I have to pay it back ?

KiKi

Hi OP

Just a question for you - and it's not rude or sarcastic, it's a genuine question. If you hadn't had that money paid to you, how would you and your OH coped from Oct to Jan? I can understand being very skint must have made it very tempting. It seems to me that you either:

a) spent it on stuff that wasn't essential (expensive birthday presents, Christmas)
b) spent in on stuff that was essential - in which case, not having that money meant you would have had to take out a loan or similar over Christmas

If it was the former, is there anything you can sell back to get some money to help repay?

If it was the latter, perhaps you and your OH could sit down and work out how to either up your income or spend less; then if you get to a point again where you need money but don't have it, you won't need to get a loan or be in debt. People on the DFW board will be able to help you on that one.

KiKi

Austinhead

Googlewhacker wrote: »

can you work more hours? Have you made sure you have all the benefits you are entitled to www.entitledto.co.uk <----have a look on there for an idea.

We do get tax credits, and I have made an application for Council tax benefit today. I'm self employed and trying to get more work. Whilst I could stop this and get a FT job with a decent wage, our tax credits would stop, and our childcare costs would go up massively to around £80 a day. I just have to keep pushing with the job and hope to get more work.

Sambucus_Nigra

This scenario does make me mad.

In other businesses - when people lose money the company have taken the losses from the employee's pay. But you get a manager who doesn't complete the paperwork, or payroll/HR that doesn't do their job; and loses money and the person who has now left has to pay it back. If it had been a customer, it would be written off or the person who actually forked up would have to pay.

As mentioned - the employee had a contract to over pay any monies - however that contract ended 4/5 months ago. It is no longer valid! It's not her fault that the dumba$$ manager is incompetent.

I'd personally, if I was THAT brassic - tell them to swivel. i.e....

A - I may have had a contract to pay back monies owing, however this ended on XXX date and for 4 full months you [the company] continued paying money into my account and I [the OP] consider that to be no different to unsolicited goods.

B - I [The OP] cannot pay it back now, due to hardship - so would happily attend any court hearing to express this hardship and make my case. I believe that my income and expenditure would support this and I [the OP] have been advised to collect detailed records of such for the court's perusal.

I know I'll get flamed but; one month - yes pay it back. 2 - now that's annoying. 3 - !!!!!! this is stupid but 4 - take me to court you ignorant b'stards,

Googlewhacker

Sambucus_Nigra wrote: »

This scenario does make me mad.

In other businesses - when people lose money the company have taken the losses from the employee's pay. But you get a manager who doesn't complete the paperwork, or payroll/HR that doesn't do their job; and loses money and the person who has now left has to pay it back. If it had been a customer, it would be written off or the person who actually forked up would have to pay.

As mentioned - the employee had a contract to over pay any monies - however that contract ended 4/5 months ago. It is no longer valid! It's not her fault that the dumba$$ manager is incompetent.

I'd personally, if I was THAT brassic - tell them to swivel. i.e....

A - I may have had a contract to pay back monies owing, however this ended on XXX date and for 4 full months you [the company] continued paying money into my account and I [the OP] consider that to be no different to unsolicited goods.

B - I [The OP] cannot pay it back now, due to hardship - so would happily attend any court hearing to express this hardship and make my case. I believe that my income and expenditure would support this and I [the OP] have been advised to collect detailed records of such for the court's perusal.

I know I'll get flamed but; one month - yes pay it back. 2 - now that's annoying. 3 - !!!!!! this is stupid but 4 - take me to court you ignorant b'stards,

Mistakes happen, people that process payroll etc are only human as well. I wholeheartedly disagree with your sentiments and the OP should pay it back but as mentioned if they cannot afford to pay it back in one payment they should make suitable arrangements

nickinoo

You were very silly to spend the 1st 3 payments but you then went on to spend the 4th after the ex-employer alerted you so you can't even act dumb about it. Accept you have to pay it & set up a payment plan.

Austinhead

KiKi wrote: »

Hi OP

Just a question for you - and it's not rude or sarcastic, it's a genuine question. If you hadn't had that money paid to you, how would you and your OH coped from Oct to Jan? I can understand being very skint must have made it very tempting. It seems to me that you either:

a) spent it on stuff that wasn't essential (expensive birthday presents, Christmas)
b) spent in on stuff that was essential - in which case, not having that money meant you would have had to take out a loan or similar over Christmas

If it was the former, is there anything you can sell back to get some money to help repay?

If it was the latter, perhaps you and your OH could sit down and work out how to either up your income or spend less; then if you get to a point again where you need money but don't have it, you won't need to get a loan or be in debt. People on the DFW board will be able to help you on that one.

KiKi

I have no problems with answering genuine questions

The money was spent towards birthday and christmas presents, but we did have a budget, and whilst you can say that I shouldn't have done that, we have 3 young kids who all believe whole heartedly in father christmas, and he "has elves to make all the presents". I looked around a lot for deals and used tesco clubcard vouchers towards that and certainly didn't spend a ridiculous amount (I accept that it wasn't my money to spend so no responses regarding that please !)

We also had car tax £120 for 6 months, plus car bills which totalled around £400.

My OH also went from agency work, being paid weekly, to permanent being paid monthly, which meant we had to go for 3 weeks on 1 weeks pay from him.

I have done the budget calculator and started taking money out and using envelopes to budget for everything. It has made a difference, and i'm being very very strict. I have set myself a target regarding the work, and if I don't start earning more money by May I will be forced to look for alternative work.

I owe £9500 in credit cards so the repayments on those are a big chunk. Because of my low income I am unable to get a consolidation loan to reduce the repayments.

I am desperately against going bankrupt because of the long term implications.

KiKi

Sambucus_Nigra wrote: »

one month - yes pay it back. 2 - now that's annoying. 3 - !!!!!! this is stupid but 4 - take me to court you ignorant b'stards,

:rotfl:

It is annoying, and it may be incompetent. But when I think about the situation (or ones like it) I think there's probably someone sitting in an office who just hasn't picked up an email, or made a mistake. And mistakes have to work both ways, otherwise we'd all be screwed!

The OP didn't tell the employer they'd continued to pay, so they had no chance to rectify the error until someone picked it up when they were probably reconciling the accounts or reviewing salaries or something.

But your comment did make me laugh!

KiKi

RedSoleShoes

Austinhead wrote: »

I will be contacting them to try to arrange repayment, but given my gross income is £6k and my OH is £14k with 3 young kids and childcare to pay, I cannot afford very much.

Clearly being totally skint all the time has impaired my judgement

Sorry to give another harsh comment but why did you have 3 kids when you knew you couldn't afford it? I think you want people here to say "oh you poor thing, you do not have to pay the money back". You knew after month 1 that you were 'taking' money that was not yours yet you said nothing because you had birthday presents to buy. I'm sure you would be disgusted if another parent had kept money that they were not entitled to, particularly as it was from a school of all places.

I do not think you will get the sympathy you want on this forum that is about money saving using HONEST means!

KiKi

Austinhead wrote: »

The money was spent towards birthday and christmas presents, but we did have a budget, and whilst you can say that I shouldn't have done that, we have 3 young kids who all believe whole heartedly in father christmas, and he "has elves to make all the presents". I looked around a lot for deals and used tesco clubcard vouchers towards that and certainly didn't spend a ridiculous amount (I accept that it wasn't my money to spend so no responses regarding that please !)

We also had car tax £120 for 6 months, plus car bills which totalled around £400.

My OH also went from agency work, being paid weekly, to permanent being paid monthly, which meant we had to go for 3 weeks on 1 weeks pay from him.

I have done the budget calculator and started taking money out and using envelopes to budget for everything. It has made a difference, and i'm being very very strict. I have set myself a target regarding the work, and if I don't start earning more money by May I will be forced to look for alternative work.

Well done for trying to get on top of all of it.

People on the DFW board also have some great tips to help - if you post your Statement Of Affairs on there (there's a link at the top of the DFW board) they will do what they can to help you get your CC debt down more quickly, too.

The Old Style Board also has great tips on cutting food budgets and the like.

I think you know what you did was stupid, so hopefully you will be able to get it resolved - but do check out those other boards, they're a very supportive bunch and will share their tips on getting the debt down more quickly.

KiKi

Sambucus_Nigra

KiKi wrote: »

:rotfl:

It is annoying, and it may be incompetent. But when I think about the situation (or ones like it) I think there's probably someone sitting in an office who just hasn't picked up an email, or made a mistake. And mistakes have to work both ways, otherwise we'd all be screwed!

The OP didn't tell the employer they'd continued to pay, so they had no chance to rectify the error until someone picked it up when they were probably reconciling the accounts or reviewing salaries or something.

But your comment did make me laugh!

KiKi

The OP shouldn't have to. Their contract ended on the last paypacket, which should have reconciled their monies owing.

If the employer had continued to send them an unsolicited fridge freezer once a month, then they could not ask for it back! What's the difference?

Under the Unsolicited Goods and Services Act 1971, (as amended) it is an offence to demand payment for goods known to be unsolicited, in other words, they were sent to a person without any prior request made by them or on their behalf.