Wage Overpayment Notice after Leaving Work

Influense

Hello, Hopefully, someone here may have some insight into a letter my daughter has received from her former employer.

My daughter applied for and was taken on to work at Boots, She was aware that it was a fixed-term contract for 1 month, Boots decided not to extend the contract for anyone and so she was let go at the end of the term this was 26/10/19, she received her first and final payslip and that was that.

We have now received a letter (31/01/20) from Boots stating that she was overpaid by nearly £600 and that they would like the money back. She is still looking for work and has not had employment since she left Boots.

My problem is that she has no contract of employment from Boots, no confirmation of employment and no indication of what the hourly rate of pay was, she wasn't even verbally told what her rate of pay would be. The only correspondence was a brief letter confirming that the fixed-term contract would end. She was only offered the position over the phone, with no paper trail whatsoever.

I am just wondering what the implications are in relation to repaying this, as she had no idea what she was expecting to be paid, she could not identify an overpayment error, and as a 17-year-old she has already spent.

Any help or advice greatly appreciated.

[Deleted User]

If she genuinely has no idea what she was earning, or what she was going to get in return for turning up to work, she'll need to get in touch with Boots to find out.

An overpayment of £600 in a month on what was presumably a low level job is going to be fairly easy to identify.

Influense

Deleted_User wrote: »

If she genuinely has no idea what she was earning, or what she was going to get in return for turning up to work, she'll need to get in touch with Boots to find out.

An overpayment of £600 in a month on what was presumably a low level job is going to be fairly easy to identify.

Thanks for your reply, at present, I am holding off contacting Boots, as we only received the letter today. One of my questions would be, how can you claim to have overpaid someone, when you never told them what they were going to be paid in the first place?

Even while working there she had no indication of an hourly rate, they didn't even explain the fixed term contract until she'd started work, none of the others they took on even knew.

General_Grant

Influense wrote: »

Hello, Hopefully, someone here may have some insight into a letter my daughter has received from her former employer.

My daughter applied for and was taken on to work at Boots, She was aware that it was a fixed-term contract for 1 month, Boots decided not to extend the contract for anyone and so she was let go at the end of the term this was 26/10/19, she received her first and final payslip and that was that.

We have now received a letter (31/01/20) from Boots stating that she was overpaid by nearly £600 and that they would like the money back. She is still looking for work and has not had employment since she left Boots.

My problem is that she has no contract of employment from Boots, no confirmation of employment and no indication of what the hourly rate of pay was, she wasn't even verbally told what her rate of pay would be. The only correspondence was a brief letter confirming that the fixed-term contract would end. She was only offered the position over the phone, with no paper trail whatsoever.

I am just wondering what the implications are in relation to repaying this, as she had no idea what she was expecting to be paid, she could not identify an overpayment error, and as a 17-year-old she has already spent.

Any help or advice greatly appreciated.

If she applied for the work (as it sounds did others) was there not an advertisement specifying the wage?

She has received a payslip which should detail what she was paid. Look at that to see if you can understand how it may have suggested an overpayment of £600. £600 for one month is well over an additional £3/hour. What was she actually paid and what were her hours? Did they include an amount for paid holiday as perhaps they miscalculated on that?

Silvertabby

Difference between adult national minimum wage (£8+ per hour) and under 18 national minimum wage (£4+ per hour) ?

Influense

General_Grant wrote: »

If she applied for the work (as it sounds did others) was there not an advertisement specifying the wage?

She has received a payslip which should detail what she was paid. Look at that to see if you can understand how it may have suggested an overpayment of £600. £600 for one month is well over an additional £3/hour. What was she actually paid and what were her hours? Did they include an amount for paid holiday as perhaps they miscalculated on that?

Thanks for your reply, She applied for the Job on indeed which gave an annual wage only, but didn't specify it was a fixed contract. She worked there for 5 weeks, at an intial glance at the PA wage the monthly payment she recieved looked proportionally close. She only received one pay packet, which was on an online via epayslips, she can no longer login to epayslips, her email is no longer recognised on there.

KatrinaWaves

Literally no one can help you here with zero info to go on. She needs to ring Boots and ask them to explain. If theyve overpaid her, then she owes it back. if they havent, she doesnt. Thats it.

Influense

I know the lack of information is not helpful. In short, she received no contract of employment or written statement informing her of her job title, pay or hours of work, any benefits or holiday entitlement, start dates or notice periods. Only one written letter from the assistant manager stating that her contract is fixed-term and would be coming to an end on 26/10/2019 letter dated 17/10/19.

So based on the original job advert the payment she received look proportional to the annual wage stated. As such, she believed this to be the correct amount and being a 17 year with her first paycheck, has spent the money in good faith.

KatrinaWaves

okay so how about you give the info you do have

1. The annual salary advertised
2. how many hours she worked a week/overall
3. How much she was paid

pramsay13

As you've been told if there is an overpayment it is owed back.

At 17 I could have told you every penny I was owed, and would spot an underpayment or overpayment immediately and did on several occasions over the years.

You will not get anyone here who will say it doesn't matter that she has spent it or that she doesn't have to pay it back, however it's worth speaking to Boots, firstly to check if there has in actual fact been an error and to see if they will offer a goodwill gesture and allow her to keep it.

If not they may or may not pursue the money vigorously.

Influense

pramsay13 wrote: »

As you've been told if there is an overpayment it is owed back.

At 17 I could have told you every penny I was owed, and would spot an underpayment or overpayment immediately and did on several occasions over the years.

You will not get anyone here who will say it doesn't matter that she has spent it or that she doesn't have to pay it back, however it's worth speaking to Boots, firstly to check if there has in actual fact been an error and to see if they will offer a goodwill gesture and allow her to keep it.

If not they may or may not pursue the money vigorously.

Thank you for your reply, and whilst I understand where you are coming from and that overpayments are legally entitled to be reclaimed, can I ask you a hypothetical question?

I am going to employ you for 1 week, 37.5 hours, at the end of that week I transfer £300.00 to your account. Have you been overpaid, underpaid or paid correctly?