request for repayment of salary overpayment - 2 years ago.

[chickadee]

My daughter worked for a high street pharmacist one day a week for a couple of years while at 6th form - a weekend job. She is now at university.

Towards the end of her contract, she was put on a zero hours contract because she was going travelling and wanted to be able to come back to the company when on uni vacations - something that didn't actually happen.

She has today received a letter from the organisation stating that she owes them around £340 because she was overpaid. In 2015! This was while she was out of the country. SHe apparently was paid 2 months money - in June and July 2015.

The organisation are asking for immediate repayment within 14 days. SHe is a uni student, in the middle of exams, and simply doesn't have the money.

Now I could pay on her behalf, but wanted to check the legality - firstly, she didnt know she had been overpaid - she wasnt in the country. Secondly, this was 2 years ago - she has not kept any records, payslips etc from June 2015. The information supplied with the request contains a payment of salary (she will go to the bank to establish whether or not this money was in fact paid to her), plus charges for unpaid absences from work.

Is a company within it rights to claw back overpayments for 2 years ago?
Can they demand the entire amount in one go, without offering any repayment scheme?

They have stated that they terminated her employment in November 2016, when she had at that point been away from the organisation for some 18 months.

Its all very confusing!

Thank you for any advice you can offer.

[mariefab]

Re: request for repayment of salary overpayment - 2 years ago.

Well, to start with they can't charge someone on a zero hours contract for unpaid absences!

As for the overpayment; once she's got the information about the 2 alleged payments from June and July 2015 from the bank, she needs to ask them to provide: 1. copies of the 2 payslips. 2. A breakdown of how the 2 totals were calculated. 3. A copy of her employment contract from that period.

It's possible that a sum for accrued untaken holiday entitlement needs to be deducted from the overpayment. So, I wouldn't be in a hurry to pay it off for her until you have all the relevant information to hand.

[ULA]

Re: request for repayment of salary overpayment - 2 years ago.

I believe that unfortunately and overpayment by an employer can be claimed back up to six years after it has been made, however do not be in a rush to pay it back. Firstly as [MENTION=26290]mariefab[/MENTION] has suggested go back to your daughter's employer and ask then to provide those pieces of information. This together with copies of bank statements your daughter can obtain from her bank will verify whether the payments were actually received into her bank account.

Once you have all the information then you/your daughter can verify whether the company is correct and the overpayments have been made. However that is not the end of the story in addition to any accrued untaken holiday pay that should be taken account of and may therefore mean she does not owe as much as they think she does, there may also legally be a defence based on "change of position". There is case law to support this whereby the defence had involved a recipient not having to repay any or part of an overpayment if it would be unjust for them to do so. Therefore, if an overpayment is made and the recipient spends part of it or all of it they may only be ordered to repay the money they have not spent. In addition a further defence is that the overpayment was not caused by your daughter it was an issue created by her previous employer.

So whilst the employer may be justified in pursuing the money at this stage, once you have established all the facts it may be worth sending the employer a letter, refusing to pay them back and outlining your reasons for doing so, relying on the facts detailed above.

[mariefab]

Re: request for repayment of salary overpayment - 2 years ago.

The most important information to get from her former employer is the breakdown of exactly what the payments were for. If they've just done an audit and noticed that no work was done since May 2015 and assumed from this that June and July were overpayments; that's simply not good enough. Neither is just calling the payments salary. They need to prove that the money is actually owed.

With the total claimed being only £340 it's possible that June's payment was for work done after the payroll cut off date in May and July's payment was for untaken holiday pay once payroll realised that she'd left.