CRS Letter for Salary Overpayment

[Guest]

Hi All,*

I worked for Poundland for just under a year and resigned at the end of January 2020. Today (26 June 2020) I've come home to find a letter from CMS requesting £700 for a salary overpayment! How can this be possible and only coming now 5 months after I've left the business? I'm not quite sure what to do as I don't want to be in any trouble. Any help you could provide would be greatly appreciated.*

[ostell]

Did they say how that amount is made up?* Did they pay you holiday pay?

[MisterJ]

No they didn't. They just said it was a salary overpayment*

[MisterJ]

My letter looks identical to the others I've seen posted with the obvious detail changes*

[MisterJ]

In fairness they may have given me holiday pay when I left but I can't really remember. It's been ages ago and so much has happened since then.*

[ostell]

So you ask them to define when, how and how much the overpayments were.* If you can't remember holiday pay then ask them about it.* It should be about 4 weeks pay less any holidays you've taken

[MisterJ]

Thank you so much for the reply. I'm freaking a little because I've just gotten my finances in order finally. Am I asking CRS this or Poundland?*

[MisterJ]

I just don't think I've overpaid. I would have certainly noticed an extra £725 more in my pay*

[ostell]

Who is it CRM or CMS?* You will be querying Poundland.* If your pay was no more than was expected then you have spent it on other debts and therfore there is no more money available to return.* There's a legal term for this, which I can't remember, but I'm sure someone else will.


Just saying overpayment is insufficient, you want to know the ins and outs so that you can query it.* Did you keep your last couple of payslps?

[ULA]

As mentioned by*ostell*a change of position is a defence to a claim in "unjust enrichment" as defined in Lipkin Gorman v Karpnale Ltd 1991 i.e. you have spent the money on every-day living expenses because you had a genuine belief that the money was yours to spend.

As you have been advised by others you need to establish exactly what the overpayment was for in order for you to establish whether there has in fact been an overpayment made to you. I am surprised that they did not, at least in the first instance, contact you directly especially if they had a clause on their contract regarding overpayments and what happens about recovering these when someone leaves.