FFS!

Earlier this year I started working at a well known highstreet shop, and I worked there for about a month before being dismissed. I have timekeeping issues...

Anyhow, I've had all my payments from them, and this morning I wake up to a letter informing me I have to pay them back nearly £700 in overpaid salary! Bear in mind the last payment from them was about 3 months ago.

I'm currently unemployed, with about £200 debt to the bank, and another £50 owed to the phone company!

I need a job, but there's no way I'm paying back the overpayment.

What a load of gash...

Sounds like they might come after you so don't ignore them but buy yourself some more time. I would send a return letter asking for exact dates and times of when the hours worked are in question if they haven't done so. If they did that already I would still send some kind of letter trying to buy yourself time like you have to discuss this with a lawyer or maybe some government labor regulartory agency (here in the states we have the Dept. of Labor as well as several at the state level). You might even find that you aren't responsible for paying them back if you find something to help you.

Good luck finding a job.

This guy above me is too smart...he said all the things I was going to say.:jointsmile:

I found this legal advice online:

In businesses operating computerised payroll systems, it is not unusual for an occasional error to arise resulting in a mistaken overpayment to an employee. This might take the form of an overpayment of basic rate pay or overtime pay or commission/bonus. The payslip is often fairly complex and employees sometimes fail to thoroughly check its contents. It can sometimes be a matter of weeks or even months before the employee or the business realise that an overpayment has taken place. In this situation, the legal question is whether the company are entitled to recover the overpayment and, if so, by what means.

In order to show that an overpayment is not recoverable, then the employee must demonstrate three things. Firstly, it must be shown that the overpayment was the fault of the company and not the employee. Secondly, it must have been reasonable for the employee not to know that they were being overpaid. Thirdly, the employee must have acted to their disadvantage or the assumption that the payment of salary was correct (for example by spending the money!). The most common difficulty for employees is the second condition since it is often obvious when an overpayment has occurred. It is not acceptable for an employee to assume that they have received a substantial increase in pay unless there is some reason to believe that this is the case.

The Employment Rights Act 1996 provides that it will not be an illegal deduction from wages to recover an overpayment from salary. This means that an employer is not prevented from deducting the overpayment from future wages or salary provided that this is done reasonably over a period of time and not done in such a way as to amount to a breach of trust and confidence in the employment relationship. The interesting point about the Employment Rights Act is that overpayments can be recovered from future wages whether or not the overpayment itself is recoverable from the employee on the basis of the three point test set out above.



So essentially, I'm going to say that it's their fault, and I don't have the means to pay it back...

It's their mistake, and it's their fault. You dont owe them sweet fuck all - and i'd tell them that too.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LIP

It's their mistake, and it's their fault. You dont owe them sweet fuck all - and i'd tell them that too.

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lol, that's what my girlfriends mum said...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BUZz UK

lol, that's what my girlfriends mum said...

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Lol. Is the place in Norwich?

Yeah, WHSmiths, in the train station, haha...

LoL. I bet that was a fun job eh lol!

How close is it to the trains? [I aint been there for a good few years now]

If it's as loud as it is where all the trains are it'd do my fucking head in!

Yeah dont stress it too much, as far as I figure, you dont owe them shit