Overpayment of salary after leaving

[TangoBit]

Hello everybody, I was wondering if anyone can give me any advice regarding the situation I was in.

 

Less than a year ago, I was pushed into resigning from my post within a large government body so as to avoid being caught up in a disciplinary inferno. I resigned, under pressure from senior management, from my post with immediate effect, on the 23rd of the calendar month. My wages were paid on the 30th as standard.

 

About 6 weeks later I received a letter from my former employer's Pay section advising that as my resingation had not been received in time for the payroll processing, I had been overpaid by around £220 net. At this time i had still not been paid the considerable amount of leave I had been owed; when I put this in writing to them, they stated that it was my responsibility to chase up leave owed to me and that any overpayment would be deducted from the leave payments owed.

 

I received correspondence from ther senior manager of my site advising me of what leave they believed i was entitled to; it was less than my own calculations and records had indicated, but given that I was keen to move on with my life and put everything behind me, I did not reply to this and believed the matter to be concluded. I received payment for this, and assumed the overpayment had been cleared.

 

However before Christmas I received a strongly worded letter from my former employer stating that I had still not paid, and threatening legal action. I replied stating that I had made arrangements regarding the leave owed to me, however I have now received a reply stating that the leave paid to me did not have the overpayment deducted due to an error by staff in Pay section.

 

Right now I would like to know where i stand regarding possible legal action they can take against me. I'm thinking of writing in demanding a full audit of the records of leave and flexi taken by me in order to challenge the amount they stated I was owed, but I want to know what exactly their chances of winning a case against me are should they try and take me to court.

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Sidewinder]

Welcome to the site

 

Firstly, you are fully entitled to query the amount which they claim that you owe, and you should make your own calculations to compare with their figures. Ask for a detailed breakdown of the amounts before agreeing to anything.

 

As to whether they can win a case against you? That depends on the credibility of their evidence. As with any County Court action to recover a debt, you have a right to challenge the claim, disagree with the amount and defend your position. Your position will be so much the stronger if you can demonstrate errors in their calculations, and the fact that they were unwilling to consider any attempt on your part to correct them.

 

They are probably bluffing on the leagal action at present, but ultimately yes, they could sue to recover the alleged debt.

[TangoBit]

Thanks for that.

 

I've written a letter to them asking for me leave taken over the time I worked there to be recounted; I know I had a manual record on my desk, so they should be able to make use of that.

 

From experience of friends working in finance, they advised me that the chances of me being sued for £200 odd are quite small, but with the government you never really know. From experience, given that the initial overpayment and the subsequent failure to collect when previously arranged to do so were as a result of their errors, would that have any impact on a court case?

[Sidewinder]

That would depend on how vigorously you were prepared to defend it. If the error was one of fact as would seem to be the case here (ie a mistake in calculating the salary) then there would be a greater argument for you to repay, although you could then argue a change of position - basically spent the money, believing that you were entitled to it and had been given good reason to believe that you were entitled to it.

 

The question there would be whether the amount was such that you could reasonably have known that you were overpaid, so clearly the issues over holiday would be relevant, as it might be reasonable to assume that the pay was correct based on what you calculated to be your outstanding entitlement.

 

I am inclined to agree that Court action for £200 might not be worth their while unless they were very sure of success, although stranger things have happened.

[SarEl]

... although you could then argue a change of position - basically spent the money, believing that you were entitled to it and had been given good reason to believe that you were entitled to it.

 

.

 

Just to add that in reality this defence works best if there is no current income to pay back the debt. If the OP were in work, then it would have less chance of succeeding, as the courts tend to combine "couldn't have known / spent it in good faith / and can't pay it back"

[afcwben]

When I left central government they miscalculated my leave, making it less than my calculations, they did this because the formula they used was incorrect, they paid me what they felt was due but after much toing and froing they eventually agreed with me. This looks like it could possibly be the same, I think I still have the email calculations somewhere and will have to dig them out and clean them up for you to see how I worked out where they were wrong.