Aaaaggghhh Work sending wages to solicitors!!!

LolStevo

Hiya, i have a had a letter from my previous job, B&Q, it says that i have been overpaid by £168!?!? I was only there for 3 months and my pay was always correct. they have sent me my last wage slip from when they say i was overpaid but i cant see how i was overpaid but cannot get this through to them, they say they are sending the debt over to a collections agency and then solicitors, so what can i do??!?!

Thanks x

angelavdavis

Have you checked your contract of employment?

It should clearly state that you should pay money back if they over pay you and state how they are to get the money back.

If it does you need to write back to them and either pay up all the money in one go, or inform them that you cannot afford to pay the money back in one go and can pay in x installments of x amount. Send the letter to them by recorded delivery.

If your employment contract does not state you have to pay any money back or you do not have one then write a letter to them stating this. In this case do not offer to pay the money back in the letter as they have no legal right to it.

Your employment contract consists of your letter of acceptance for the job, any staff handbook or documents that it refers to.

I suspect B&Q will have put this in your contract so you will have to pay it back.

Whatever, you need to write to them anyway requesting clarification of how you have been overpaid.

lyric_grace

This happened to my ex-boyfriend who also used to work at said DIY store, he had also left and they told him by letter that he had been overpaid by £xxx and solicitor was on the case (can't remember how much but it was 3 figures!) He also coundn't work out why as according to him he hadn't been overpaid at all! Anyway he was annoyed at not being able to contact them (rang loads of times) so he marched into the store and spoke to the manager himself and explained exactly what he had worked and when and the manager agreed with him and told him that he would sort it out for him. Hope this make sense to you and that it might be of some help!!

LolStevo

Hiya thanks for your advice! I dont owe them the money but the letters are coming from the head office and not from the store i worked in so they wont have anythin 2 do with it! xx

Maisie

I used to work in the payroll dept of a large company and the stores had to send in sheets of the employee's work hours etc . If the store manager messed up the information the wages were wrong.

I know you're saying you don't owe them money but somewhere HO have got this information. I would go into the store and ask the store manager what info he sent to HO. Get him to sort it out.

Have they paid holiday pay/bonus etc that you're not entitled to?

Go to the CAB if you can't get help from the company.

woohoo_postingid

The store would have put the hours into head office wouldn't they? I would go and speak to the store manager, confirm the hours and get him/her to phone the payroll department whilst you are there

zzzLazyDaisy

angelavdavis wrote:

Have you checked your contract of employment?

If your employment contract does not state you have to pay any money back or you do not have one then write a letter to them stating this. In this case do not offer to pay the money back in the letter as they have no legal right to it..

Unfortunately this is only partly right.

If an employee owes the employer money, then the employer can only deduct it from their wages if the contract states this. Otherwise they must come to an agreement with the employee for repayment of the money. BUT a genuine over-payment can always be deducted. And certainly, if the person has been overpaid they are entitled to ask for it back.

However they must explain how the overpayment has been calculated and give the person a chance to make repayments.

Whether they would go to court for that amount is highly debateable - they it would cost more in solicitors fees than the debt

madduck

The usual cause of overpayments like this when someone leaves is due to overtaken annual leave. You were only there for 3 months, how much leave did you take in that time?

Totally agree with zzzLazyDaisy - even if there isn't an stated contractual terms allowing for recovery of overpayment, the employer still can take steps to secure recovery. You do have the right though to demand a clear explanation of how the overpayment was calculated.