Previous employer demanding overpayment

CL13

Hello everyone

I'm hoping for some guidance. I have just recieved a letter from a company I worked for in June stating they made a mistake and overpaid me by £660. Now they want that money back.

When I was paid, the money I received was reflected in my payslip. By this I mean that I did not receive extra money that didn't match my payslip. They have sent me a new, modified payslip with the letter that shows what I apparently should have been paid.

I never received a contract from this company and no one was ever able to agree on what my salary was supposed to be whenever I asked people, which are two of the many reasons I quit.

I don't have a job (although I spend all day jobhunting), there's £200 in my bank account and I am not eligible for any benefits. I can't pay this.

Is there anything I can do regarding this? The letter also did not provide me with any contact details in order to talk to somebody about working out a payment plan, and their HR department is a call centre in Dubai whose phone lines are closed since March.

Brynsam

You may not have been given a contact telephone number, but presumably the letter gave a correspondence address? If so, write to them and ask someone to contact you by e-mail to explain exactly how the mistake arose and how they have calculated the overpayment (£660 if you only worked for them during June is quite a large amount to be wrong!), after which you will be able to consider your position. Keep it as brief and noncommittal as that, however tempted you may be to add other comments.

ToxicWomble

How much were you expecting to be paid ?
How much were you paid ?
The point being if you knew/suspected it was wrong.
£660 is a Huge difference even between people who couldn’t agree what your salary was meant to be - probably in the region of £12k a year.
If you had been underpaid - would you not want the money, same scenario swapped around for context

sharpe106

You need to get it all in writing and then decide what to do from there. 

What was the salary when you applied for the job?