overpaid in previous job NHS demanding £1000 repayment immediately advice please

uttermadness

Hi There

I was wondering if anyone on here can give me any advice as my wife is in a state & the CIB is not open till Monday, many thanks in advance.

My wife got a job working at the local NHS trust earlier this year but after 2 months in the job had to give it up due to the extremely long shifts & fatigue brought about by her MS.

She quit in early September and recieved a wages payment of £600 two weeks after, they didnt send her a wage slip & she assumed that this was final pay taking into account all her overtime & unsociable hours from the previous month.

In October she still hadn't recieved a P45 so rang wages dept who informed her that the reason for that was that she was still down as working there, this despite her ringing, sending in her notice & not clocking in. They also informed her that they had overpaid her for October but not to worry about it. When she checked her bank account sure enough there was another £600 payment which she withdrew & paid into a savings account so she would not spend it just in case they wanted it back.

Come November still no P45 & they pay another £40 into her account then in December they send her a wage slip, the first she has recieved since she left, this is a strange one as on the left hand side it states basic pay arrears of £1203 and on the other side refunds of £1213 leaving another payment of £10 which was duly paid into her bank in December.

She rang the wages dept to query this and where her p45 is but no one was available to speak to as its Christmas.

Today we have come back from visting family over the Christmas & New year period to find 3 letters from the NHS trust on our mat the first dated 12th December but postmarked 20th Dec contained an invoice for overpayment of £1115 which was way over the expected October overpayment and with no detail as to how they came to that figure and a request that this money be paid back to the trust within 14 days, the second containing a first reminder dated 27th Dec but postmarked 30th & a final reminder dated 3rd Jan & threatening debt collectors if payment is not made by 10th Jan.

All this has had the effect of sending my wife into blind panic, completely reversing the effect of her holiday & putting her under great stress which is not good for anyone suffering from MS & has got me wound up to boiling point.

This overpayment was not her fault but was down to their mistake, indeed I suspect they would still be paying her now if she hadn't rung them but what really annoys me is the way they have handled this.

She rang in mid October but its taken them 2 months to send these letters which presumably were delayed in the post over Christmas and now they expect her to not only pay them the £600 October payment but also an additional £500 from her September payment immediately with no breakdown of exactly how they came to this figure. They also are giving her no time to pay back this amount which she cannot afford right now & are already threatening debt collection. I would have thought that given it was their mistake they may have at least called her to explain what is happening or given her some time to pay.

I will be taking this to the CIB on Monday but if anyone has any advice which might serve to calm my wife down then i'd be grateful to hear from you. Many thanks in advance

whitewing

Tell her not to panic. Make sure you keep the envelopes with the postmarks. They are giving her no time because they think she is ignoring them. I am sure they will give you time to come to an arrangement when you contact them to say you have just arrived back. It is perfectly reasonable to expect a full breakdown of the overpayment. If you have a legal helpline as part of your household insurance, you may be able to get some advice from them.

zzzLazyDaisy

Okay, I know it is easy to say, but please try not to get too stressed out about this.

To start with, she knew she had been overpaid by a certain amount, so presumably she did not spend that money and still has it?

They are entitled to reclaim any money that has been genuinely overpaid, even if it was their fault.

As to the rest, if she does not accept that she has been overpaid to this amount, she needs to write to them and explain that according to her calculations she was overpaid by £x and show how she has calculated this. She should state that she is willing to repay this sum in full and final settlement of any and all sums that she owes or may owe. If this is not acceptable to them, they must send her a clear and accurate breakdown of how they are calculating the overpayment in order for her to seek professional advice. She should also point out that the overpayment occurred despite the fact that she has telephoned them repeatedly since she left their employment on [date] in an effort to have her name removed from their records as an employee and prevent further payments being made to her.

If they don't accept this offer, there may be some merit in sending a formal Part 36 letter. There is some info here, but you really need assistance to draft the letter to ensure it complies with formalities. The CAB should be able to help you with this

http://www.pinsentmasons.com/PDF/Part36offerstosettle.pdf

With regard to the threat of debt collectors - this is an empty threat. They would have to take your wife to the small claims court first, and explain how the overpayment is calculated, and your wife would be given the opportunity to dispute their calculation. It would only be if a CCJ was made against her AND she did not pay within 4 weeks, that they could apply to enforce the debt. Also provided she paid within 4 weeks, the CCJ would not be recorded on her credit file. So on the assumption that they have not yet started any court proceedings, the threat of a debt collector calling is a long way down the line.

uttermadness

Many thanks for your replies, the £600 my wife thought was the overpayment is still in her bank account & can be repaid but the rest of the money they say they are owed isnt because she was unaware that this was an overpayment and indeed when she rang them they only stated an overpayment for October.

Aside from the money though what really annoys me is the way they have gone about this firstly overpaying initially then how long it's taken for them to set about reclaiming the money and then the heavy handed way they have tried to get her to pay. Three letters in a fortnight demanding the instant repayment of over £1000 without giving any clear detail as to why it owed and including the threat of debt collectors is the sort of tactic i'd associate more with loan sharks not a care trust. Also they have my wifes contact details so they could have got in touch via the phone without resorting to threats via the post.

I would imagine if this had gone out to someone with less support around her it could have a devasting effect on them and regardless of whether its legal or not it still strikes me as totally out of order. If this had been our fault I could understand it but this is entirtely down to their incompetence.

yvonne13_2

OP I hope your wife's okay and this matter gets resolved swiftly.

getmore4less

She quit in early September and recieved a wages payment of £600 two weeks after, they didnt send her a wage slip & she assumed that this was final pay taking into account all her overtime & unsociable hours from the previous month.

Does she know what she should have been paid for the time she worked there?

Without that info you need to get them to tell you what should have been paid(and check it) as well as what you have been paid and need to repay.