Overpayment - my rights?

DVardysShadow

catecreed wrote: »

thanks for the patronising attitude...very necessary

You have put yourself on the backfoot by not answering the first letter .... the point is that you HAVE wasted time which was on your side and you have weakened your ability to defend your position by not engaging in correspondence before the other side took it to court. You could probably have kept this running for 6 months more and made them work hard to squeeze money out of you. It seems to be a modern fashion for employers to see if they can claim money back from an employee who has left. It is easier for themif the employees just hope it goes away and let the court award default judgement.

Your best hope now is to contact the court and ask for a stay of proceedings, so that you can defend properly. But ignoring the correspondence has weakened your position to do this. So don't plan on getting the stay of proceedings.

You also need to read up on the process of 'discovery', which empowers you to get your employer to produce documents. And you need to read up on the Civil Procedure Rules, which is how you and the employer must conduct the case. I've never done it, you are much more on your own - many posters could have helped with dealing with the original correspondence, but only a minority of those have any relevant experience of being sued.

DVardysShadow

catecreed wrote: »

ok you are clearly on here for the wrong reasons, this is meant to be a helpful forum, not another opportunity for strangers to get into arguements. Please do not contact me again and if so I will not be responding

Best advice? Pay up the £350. Because you are getting in too much of a strop and too easily to be able to defend this successfully. If it comes to a hearing, TopShop's lawyer will wind you up in no time.

catecreed

Appreciate the advice but know what I can handle, im not wound up at all but in the same breath didnt come on here for abuse, came on for advice to do with my legal rights in this situation which noone seemed to focus on, didnt need a personal attack on a forum supposed to help people with questions

maninthestreet

catecreed wrote: »

Appreciate the advice but know what I can handle, im not wound up at all but in the same breath didnt come on here for abuse, came on for advice to do with my legal rights in this situation which noone seemed to focus on, didnt need a personal attack on a forum supposed to help people with questions

If they have overpaid you, then you have no rights to the money, and you should pay it back.

viktory

catecreed wrote: »

ok you are clearly on here for the wrong reasons, this is meant to be a helpful forum, not another opportunity for strangers to get into arguements. Please do not contact me again and if so I will not be responding

Don't be so childish!! You clearly don't like what you have heard, but it is perfectly reasonable. Helpful does not equate 'tell me what I want to hear'. You cannot prove that you were not overpaid, they can prove you were. You are running the very real risk of getting a CCJ. Make an agreement or pay the amount in full - fast.

thorsoak

catecreed wrote: »

Appreciate the advice but know what I can handle, im not wound up at all but in the same breath didnt come on here for abuse, came on for advice to do with my legal rights in this situation which noone seemed to focus on, didnt need a personal attack on a forum supposed to help people with questions

If your previous employer can provide proof that you have been overpaid, then you have a legal (and moral) duty to repay it.

Simples

sho_me_da_money

If you receive an opinion of someone that is contrary to your belief, does that equate to Abuse?

Shut up going on with yourself and do what others are saying. You have the right to one thing and one thing only.

The right to pay back what you owe!

pinkshoes

catecreed wrote: »

Its definitely genuine and I had one letter a few weeks before but hadn't replied before I received the claim.

I'm presuming this initial letter gave you 14 days to pay back the money you owed before they take court action?

Important question: Did they send this letter recorded delivery? If not, and thus they can't prove you received it, then respond to the court thing saying you didn't receive any form of letter informing you of this debt, and that you dispute owing it, and need a breakdown of where they think you were overpaid.

If it was sent recorded, then I'm afraid there's not much you can do, as this was your opportunity to respond.

trinity_enigma

One of the problems you have is not knowing how long you were off ill for. Speak to your GP- if you got sick notes then they will have a record of this.

Did you have a contract and if you did do you still have it? This will tell you how much sick pay you were entitled to.

Do you have copies of your bank statements or does your online banking show back that far? If it does then you should be able to see how much you were paid then.

This should hopefully provide you with enough information to know whether or not you were over paid. If you were then you can pay up, if you didn't then you should be able to fight it.

See if you can get an appointment with the CAB, the CAB in my area also runs a session that gives you a free 20 min session with a local solicitor who would hopefully be able to provide some actual legal advice.

Hope that helps.

Uncertain

pinkshoes wrote: »

I'm presuming this initial letter gave you 14 days to pay back the money you owed before they take court action?

Important question: Did they send this letter recorded delivery? If not, and thus they can't prove you received it, then respond to the court thing saying you didn't receive any form of letter informing you of this debt, and that you dispute owing it, and need a breakdown of where they think you were overpaid.

If it was sent recorded, then I'm afraid there's not much you can do, as this was your opportunity to respond.

This whole recorded delivery business is nothing like as important as many people think.

There is a normal legal presumption in the UK that mail is delivered. So, to claim non receipt you would need to show some evidence of postal problems. So for most civil purposes a certificate of posting (free) is just as good

However....

Even having proof of delivery from the Royal Mail doesn't prove WHAT was sent. It could even have been an empty envelope!

In itself,