Overpayment of Wages

skintandscared_2

lerwick wrote: »

I have spoken to a someone from DWP who advised that it can't be backdated later than three months. The MA is the same rate as the SMP which is £128.73per week or 90% of your weekly earnings which ever is lower. I am currently getting legal advice as well. Thank you

Good. I'd imagine that if you can get any of the claim backdated then that money should probably repay the firm some of the money they have paid you, but you definitely should NOT end up in a worse position than you would have done if the HR department had done things properly and you'd been claiming from day one!

[Deleted User]

I think your Employer has a bl00dy cheek expected you to repay because of their mistake! If I were your Employer I would contact HMRC Employers Helpline for advice. They have failed to supply you with an SMP1 and are obviously panicking as they realise they can't reclaim the SMP as you don't actually qualify. But at the end of the day you would have been paid by someone. I had a similar instance with SSP, an employee failed to tell us he had 52 week protection letter and handed us a sick note whilst also going staight back onto incapacity! (Well he was terminally ill, he didn't have long left)
We were concerned we wouldn't be able to reclaim the SSP as he shouldn't have had it but HMRC arranged that we could and that they would recover the overpayment from him through his IB.

Suggest to your Manager that they contact HMRC for advice, you could even ring them yourself. Hopefully they will send someone out to your Employer to do a compliance check, as they obviously need a wake up call!!!

I am concerned they are going to stop paying you now?

lerwick

I already made a suggestion to them regarding claiming the money back from HMRC, here is there reply:

That is a conversation you will need to have with them. A SMP1 form will be issued to you this week.

Unfortunately ..... and I were not aware - the Mat B1 and your letter of application were never sent to us, a maternity workflow was never submitted through HRIS by your previous Line Manager and until ..... called on Monday 16th January 2012 (to see when you were due back from maternity leave) we were unaware you were on leave. We, in HR, are based in Peterborough - if the correct procedure is not followed we have no way of knowing what is going on with Staff at locations over the UK. It is an unfortunate situation, but it is one that needs resolving.

HMRC will not pay for this and therefore will not get involved with this.

£2451.57 is an outstanding amount which does need paying back. I have diaried this case for 10 working days, which takes us to 1st February 2012. If we have been unable to agree a repayment plan by then I will pass this overpayment case to a Debt Collection Agent, who will look to recover the balance on our behalf. This falls in line with our standard procedure for any overpayment cases.

I am sorry for this situation Lerwick and I am trying to assist you. I have offered to split payments over 24 months however you have, at present, declined this.


so based on that response, I have informed them in writing that I am ready to take the case to anywhere :
Thanks for your email. The fact remains that I submitted a maternity certificate and an internal form to my line manager who got back to me and confirmed me that it was approved and that I should proceed on my maternity leave. It is the responsibility of the organization to ensure that line managers are up to date and are aware of all internal procedures. I should not be held responsible for someone else's incompetence. The HMRC websites states that if an employee does not qualify for SMP, the employer must inform her immediately and issue the said employee with SMP1 form stating why. This form was never issued to me in April when I handed in my maternity notice. I still do not accept the claim that HR was not aware that I was on maternity as there is a lady covering my hours and due diligence should have been followed before employing her. I received the wages in utmost good fate that it was my Statutory Maternity Pay and I am ready to go to the highest court of appeal on this issue. In addition, I am going to send out a letter to the press and I am also getting my local MP involved. So be very ready.

Still waiting for their next reply.

FBaby

The way I see it, you are both at fault. Yes, they made a mistake, but you have a responsibility to check you are receiving what you are entitled to. If it'd been the other around and they'd given you less then you were entitled, wouldn't you fight to get the difference rather than accepting you are not entitled because it was their mistake? How can your employer be certain that you are trully innocent rather than having been fully aware of their mistake but keeping quiet and hoping noone would notice?

Despite the 3 months deadline, I would think that the DWP would consider your case unusual and due to the mistake, would be prepared to refund you the full amount of SMP.

lerwick

FBaby wrote: »

The way I see it, you are both at fault. Yes, they made a mistake, but you have a responsibility to check you are receiving what you are entitled to. If it'd been the other around and they'd given you less then you were entitled, wouldn't you fight to get the difference rather than accepting you are not entitled because it was their mistake? How can your employer be certain that you are trully innocent rather than having been fully aware of their mistake but keeping quiet and hoping noone would notice?

Despite the 3 months deadline, I would think that the DWP would consider your case unusual and due to the mistake, would be prepared to refund you the full amount of SMP.

How do I know how much I am entitled to without them informing me? If the money is refunded, I have no problems paying them back.

[Deleted User]

lerwick wrote: »

I already made a suggestion to them regarding claiming the money back from HMRC, here is there reply:

That is a conversation you will need to have with them. A SMP1 form will be issued to you this week.

Unfortunately ..... and I were not aware - the Mat B1 and your letter of application were never sent to us, a maternity workflow was never submitted through HRIS by your previous Line Manager and until ..... called on Monday 16th January 2012 (to see when you were due back from maternity leave) we were unaware you were on leave. We, in HR, are based in Peterborough - if the correct procedure is not followed we have no way of knowing what is going on with Staff at locations over the UK. It is an unfortunate situation, but it is one that needs resolving.

HMRC will not pay for this and therefore will not get involved with this.

1) It is not your place to discuss their mistake with HMRC
2) So have they actually taken advice or are they just assuming this?

Your reply is spot on. I can't believe they are threatening you with debt collectors, there is no debt, there is an overpayment of wages, but you have a good case for proving you genuinely believed you were entitled to the money. Obviously I havent seen the whole paper trail but if they continue to harass and threaten you whilst on Maternity Leave they could find themselves in a whole heap of bother!
This could be useful http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http://www.bis.gov.uk/files/file34286.pdf Did you inform them you were pregnant in writing or just fill out their form? Do you have a copy of the form?
Even though you shouldn't have to I would try the Employer Helpline 08457 143 143 they are open until 8pm your Employer is probably scared to ring them as most people don't like admitting mistakes to HMRC, but despite their bad reputation they can actually be really helpful if you are upfront and honest.

FBaby

Do you never check whatever money you receive or pay is accurate? All you needed to do was google maternity pay and you would have got all the details. I'm also surprise your company don't have a maternity policy, I thought that was a requirement for all employers, and that would have provided all the details. Did you really believe that you would be entitled to the exact same amount of income on maternity leave than working?

My outrage in your shoes would be if DWP refused to pay what you were entitled from them knowing you have to repay everything back to your employer.

FBaby

I meant HMRC, not DWP!!

[Deleted User]

FBaby wrote: »

The way I see it, you are both at fault. Yes, they made a mistake, but you have a responsibility to check you are receiving what you are entitled to.

I know you may think that but honestly people don't! I guess we are all quite money savvy on this forum but many people just go with the flow and don't ask or question.
For example a MATB1 baby due end of April, for an employee of one of my clients fell on my desk on Monday along with a letter explaining that as the employee's 3 Year Contract expires on 31st March 2012 She only required 1 Months SMP for the period 1/3/12 - 31/3/12.

I rang my client to explain that as the employee did indeed qualify for SMP she must be paid for the whole 39 weeks either by continuing to pay her Monthly or in a lump sum and NEITHER THE EMPLOYEE OR EMPLOYER WERE AWARE OF THIS!
Granted that is why they pay for our services to make sure things are dealt with correctly but I was amazed that this Women hadn't done her own research and didn't know her entitlements.....

[Deleted User]

Lerwick do you get paid exactly the same each Month? Just because you only earn 400 per Month if for some reason you earnt more during your qualifying period you may still have been entitled. I know a of someone who deliberately held back some of her timesheets, then handed them in on her qualifying Months so she was entitled to SMP from BOTH her employers!