Defending claim for salary overpayment?

ethan444

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone here would have good advice how to defend against salary overpayment claim made by former employer - one of the prominent universities in London where i worked as researcher. Unfortunately the case is a bit complicated:

1. at some point i submitted a resignation (i was fed up with a job)
2. resignation was postponed two times by a month (they wanted me to keep working and make job a bit more pleasant, ie offered to work remotely more often)
3. eventually resignation was withdrawn - i went on 3 weeks holiday and agreed to work remotely until i start anothe job - which happened 3 months later.

UNFORTUNATELY there is almost no paper trail for the last part. I was so exhausted by working so long hours there, that i just talked with HR/manager and they were like "dont worry about it, we havent even told payroll about you resigning in first place". Well, they didnt, but one year later i am receiving claim from County Court Business Center for absurd amount of money... (claim was ballooned by me having overpaid taxes with them due to wrong tax code for almost a year - i only got my tax fixed in last payslip, which happpend to be in "overpaid" paid, so they try to claim all this back as well).

Anyone would know how to handle this? I probably need some lawyer, but have no idea how to find one, which won't be at City of London prices, but still do the job...

Guest101

You don't need a solicitor, you just need to prove you worked the hours you claim you worked.


What exactly are they claiming? Any tax you overpaid should've been sorted in April?

ethan444

They basically printed out 5 month of payslips and ask me to give back all the money that is on them...

- i worked remotely for 3 of those 5 months. It's gonna be hard to prove this (possibly logs from their servers if they keep them...), as they ceased to contact me during this time. However since i was still getting paid, i've been doing what we agreed for and was doing basic monitoring/fixing stuff
- the last but one payslip is bigger by few grands of "tax deductions". Not 100% what it means, but the amount is similar to what i had overpaid in taxes while being on PAYE. The month before ive been calling HMRC to sort it out - line was so bad i didnt fully get what they did, but was told they will instruct my employer to correct my deductions - so i am guessing this was it...

leslieknope

if you overpaid in tax you would have to claim the overpayment back from HMRC. your employer would be instructed to change your tax code but any tax you pay goes directly to HMRC so i can't see why your employer would refund you.

sangie595

ethan444 wrote: »

They basically printed out 5 month of payslips and ask me to give back all the money that is on them...

- i worked remotely for 3 of those 5 months. It's gonna be hard to prove this (possibly logs from their servers if they keep them...), as they ceased to contact me during this time. However since i was still getting paid, i've been doing what we agreed for and was doing basic monitoring/fixing stuff
- the last but one payslip is bigger by few grands of "tax deductions". Not 100% what it means, but the amount is similar to what i had overpaid in taxes while being on PAYE. The month before ive been calling HMRC to sort it out - line was so bad i didnt fully get what they did, but was told they will instruct my employer to correct my deductions - so i am guessing this was it...

There surely must be some evidence that you did work for them? Regardless of their servers information, what about documents, timesheets, recipients of work, managers.... Nobody works in a vacuum with not a shred of evidence that they or their work exists.


And what have you done previously to resolve this? They can't have gone directly to court without any discussion with you at all.


I have to agree that a solicitor isn't going to help you if there is no evidence to support your claim that you continued working.

agrinnall

I don't really see how they can defend asking for 5 months wages back, if they thought you weren't working there during that time they would have issued you with a P45 on what they believed to be your leaving date.

Although I have to say (as a university researcher working remotely pretty much all the time myself) that you seem to have been taking the P with the way you were working, failure to communicate in any form for such a long time is unprofessional and unacceptable in my view.

sangie595

agrinnall wrote: »

I don't really see how they can defend asking for 5 months wages back, if they thought you weren't working there during that time they would have issued you with a P45 on what they believed to be your leaving date.
.

I've seen bigger payroll errors. Not many, but some. In large organisations it's easy if there isn't effective communication. If payroll weren't informed of their leaving, then they wouldn't issue a P45.

TBagpuss

We you overpaid at all? Or working remotely for 3 months and on site for the other two?
If you have had a claim form then it is absolutely essential that you read it, check the timescales for responding and follow them. If you don't respond in time then they will be able to get 'judgment in default' against you.
You can also ask to have the case moved to your local court (this may happen automatically once you file a defence, I'm not sure)

I think you can submit the reply saying you intend to defend and this gives you another couple of weeks to then send in your defence.

ethan444

TBagpuss wrote: »

We you overpaid at all? Or working remotely for 3 months and on site for the other two?
If you have had a claim form then it is absolutely essential that you read it, check the timescales for responding and follow them. If you don't respond in time then they will be able to get 'judgment in default' against you.
You can also ask to have the case moved to your local court (this may happen automatically once you file a defence, I'm not sure)

I think you can submit the reply saying you intend to defend and this gives you another couple of weeks to then send in your defence.

We AGREED on 3 months of remote work after my (supposedly to be paid) holiday - but when i got back i stopped getting any communication from them. I even sent email to HR half-jokingly titled "am i still hired?", worried with access issue to one of the systems - this one never got replied to as well. However since I kept getting paid and still had access to all the systems i needed to perform basic duties I just kept doing basic work I agreed to (ie support).

I replied to their debt collection agency with my defence. They forwarded me an email thread where 10 people from them try to determine when my last day was (couldnt find any resignation apart from the one that got cancelled), until eventually my former manager decides to use the earliest one (the same guy who told me to "not worry as they didnt tell anything to payroll yet" back then).

Re claim form I already replied to it, so have 2 weeks left to decide on what to defend and how - i dont think this is gonna end without legal proceedings, so trying to find best way on how to handle this.

Although I have to say (as a university researcher working remotely pretty much all the time myself) that you seem to have been taking the P with the way you were working, failure to communicate in any form for such a long time is unprofessional and unacceptable in my view.

I did, but it seemed they got really !!!!ed off i didnt stay (they were about to spin off some business there and needed cheap labor) and it didnt seem i have any future there so just focused on finding a new job instead of trying to figure out what is going on...

Guest101

ethan444 wrote: »

We AGREED on 3 months of remote work after my (supposedly to be paid) holiday - but when i got back i stopped getting any communication from them. I even sent email to HR half-jokingly titled "am i still hired?", worried with access issue to one of the systems - this one never got replied to as well. However since I kept getting paid and still had access to all the systems i needed to perform basic duties I just kept doing basic work I agreed to (ie support).

I replied to their debt collection agency with my defence. They forwarded me an email thread where 10 people from them try to determine when my last day was (couldnt find any resignation apart from the one that got cancelled), until eventually my former manager decides to use the earliest one (the same guy who told me to "not worry as they didnt tell anything to payroll yet" back then).

Re claim form I already replied to it, so have 2 weeks left to decide on what to defend and how - i dont think this is gonna end without legal proceedings, so trying to find best way on how to handle this.

Did you actually get any calls or emails in those 3 months??

sangie595

I think you need to be very clear about what you are doing. They have a resignation letter. That is solid, hard evidence that you resigned. Everything else is hearsay and without evidence. I would think it highly unlikely that a court is going to say "well let's just disregard the only solid evidence we have in favor of a claim that someone worked for five months without there being a scrap of evidence that they did". Your former manager, and presumably HR, appear to say that you did not continue working for them - and there is no evidence at all that you did. An email to them asking if you are "still hired" isn't really evidence of anything other than you sending an email. So what you agreed is irrelevant. You won't be taken on your word alone. There must be something that proves you were working!