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

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LIP

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!

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Yeah, it was in the station, right next to the trains... We sometimes got some right Norfolk weirdos in there...

The only potential problem with the "It's your fault" angle, and your country's ministry of labour (or the applicable department) needs to guide you here, too, is that you said you had timekeeping issues. That led me to believe perhaps you were sacked from that job for cause. Meaning they had reason and documentation to justify having separated you from employment. If that reason had to do with "timekeeping issues" for which you were responsible, they're the ones with legal grounds to recoup their losses. Sounds like they also have the resources to keep working to do that, too, both legal and otherwise.

This is why you keep being urged to seek some guidance from your nearest labour ministry office or representative. So you can know what you'd be potentially risking by telling them to bugger off.

Oh no, I'm not going to be rude at all, I'm essentially going to say that I don't have the means to pay it, and ask them to leave it until I have money, I'm not just gonna tell them to fuck off...

The thing is, they dismissed me, so they should have been able to amend the payroll for that month. It's not like I stopped going to work, and they paid me for work they thought I'd done.

Anyhow, they're a huge corporation, and I'm poor...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BUZz UK

Yeah, it was in the station, right next to the trains... We sometimes got some right Norfolk weirdos in there...

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Hahaha. I wouldnt be able to hack it if it's right next to the trains - how do you hear yourself think???!!!

I might go in there tomorrow and ask em for stuff in broad Norfolk. Do you think they'd understand? I've been told my Norfolk accent is actually quite good for a cockney haha.

Dic dok doe.

I bleedin' hate the Norfolk accent, and I've lived here 13 odd years, haha...

h'ay yer ahreet boowy?!

lol

h'aya boye, I be alreeet.
WTH is this all about this Buzz, £700 fucking, are they kidding?
You would have thought they would have more compitant staff than to over pay you £700.
That's some fuckin hassle you don't need right now o_O