Help required, urgently.

[chunder]

Hi, I resigned from RM at the end of July after 15 years. I have just recieved a letter saying I owe them £500 holiday pay as I took 3 weeks leave. I asked my manager could I go at short notice and would my pension be safe and if I would owe them anything. He said it is all OK after he sought advice. They say they have sent a letter previously which I have not responded to. Never recieved said letter, all I have had from them is P45 and letter from pensions. Now this threateining legal action and debt recovery, in 7 days if I dont pay up, nice of them to send it to me on a Saturday so I can do f***k all about it.
I left a week before the £600 payment was due and got nothing of that, also I am sure they do not persue this if someone gets sacked? I may be wrong.
Any advice would be much appreciated from union, managers or anyone who knows.
Have to work a month in advance in my new job so have jack s**t money to give them.

Help!!

[mazza111]

Basically, you accrue your holidays as you work, even though they do allow you to take them before you earn them so to speak. So in reality, you've taken paid holidays that you weren't entitled to and probably will have to pay the money back. Think the manager has given you duff advice, how rare! That's just my opinion, maybe someone with more knowledge will come along and put me right :)

[spen]

offer a £5 a week

[eian687]

be as slow as them.............it came to light last november that Royal Mail owed me monies. It took them untill August to pay me

[stokes11eg]

Hi, I resigned from RM at the end of July after 15 years. I have just recieved a letter saying I owe them £500 holiday pay as I took 3 weeks leave. I asked my manager could I go at short notice and would my pension be safe and if I would owe them anything. He said it is all OK after he sought advice. They say they have sent a letter previously which I have not responded to. Never recieved said letter, all I have had from them is P45 and letter from pensions. Now this threateining legal action and debt recovery, in 7 days if I dont pay up, nice of them to send it to me on a Saturday so I can do f***k all about it.
I left a week before the £600 payment was due and got nothing of that, also I am sure they do not persue this if someone gets sacked? I may be wrong.
Any advice would be much appreciated from union, managers or anyone who knows.
Have to work a month in advance in my new job so have jack s**t money to give them.

Help!!

Offer a pound per week! Being serious here, they have to accept, full stop-it costs them much more to go through the debt recovery route! Try not to worry too much--and point out forcibly, your Manager had badly advised you in the first instance.

[Indy]

Hi, I resigned from RM at the end of July after 15 years. I have just recieved a letter saying I owe them £500 holiday pay as I took 3 weeks leave. I asked my manager could I go at short notice and would my pension be safe and if I would owe them anything. He said it is all OK after he sought advice. They say they have sent a letter previously which I have not responded to. Never recieved said letter, all I have had from them is P45 and letter from pensions. Now this threateining legal action and debt recovery, in 7 days if I dont pay up, nice of them to send it to me on a Saturday so I can do f***k all about it.
I left a week before the £600 payment was due and got nothing of that, also I am sure they do not persue this if someone gets sacked? I may be wrong.
Any advice would be much appreciated from union, managers or anyone who knows.
Have to work a month in advance in my new job so have jack s**t money to give them.

Help!!

Had a mate who had this happen and YES he did have to pay! as others have said make a reasonable offer based on your current circumstances. Not sure what the exact circumstance are here but I'd definitely want to be dealing with RM rather than a debt recovery company and all their additional fee's etc.

Normally your last wages will be a balance of what they owe you for work and what you owe them in terms of holiday etc. You say you resigned.... was this a straight forward 'I've had enough and have found another job I'm off' OR is there a bit more to your resignation??

[Indy]

Hi, I resigned from RM at the end of July after 15 years......

Offer a pound per week! Being serious here, they have to accept, full stop-it costs them much more to go through the debt recovery route! Try not to worry too much--and point out forcibly, your Manager had badly advised you in the first instance.

I'm sorry but thats just bad advice... YES they can refuse £1/week if you can afford more. With regards the debt collectors RM will 'sell' the debt to the collects for a discount the wash there hands of having to collect it. The debt collectors are bast'rds who will use every opportunity to add fee's to the debt i.e. £30 for a default letter £80 for a 'home visit' etc etc

Like everything in life be nice. O.K its not the nicest thing in the world to find that you owe £500 but look at it like you've spent £500 that you shouldn't have had. Talk to RM tell them that times are hard etc and make a reasonable offer saying that you have another job and once you start getting paid you'll be able to offer more. See what happens! if you genuinely feel you need help with this pop along to you local Citizens advice.

As I'm sure your aware that after 15 years at RM they don't give a toss about you so being nasty will just get you dealing with a debt collector.

[fishtank]

OVERPAYMENTS RECOVERY PROCEDURE

http://www.royalmailchat.co.uk/communit ... nt#p290174" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

4.6 In instances where an employee has left the business, Royal Mail will seek to recover any overpayment. As soon as an overpayment has been established People and Organisational Services will notify the ex-employee concerned. This notification will clearly detail the amount of the overpayment, the circumstances that have led to it, and the options available for recovering the monies that have been overpaid. Debt recovery will be used in instances where reasonable efforts have been made and failed to reach an agreement on repayment of the overpayment.

4.7 Where an employee has given advance notification of leaving the business, the business will normally recover all outstanding monies owed from the employee’s final pay to repay the overpayment.

[stokes11eg]

First time then that an overpayment of wages has been classified as a debt, in the accepted sense! As to the pound a week-if this is all you can afford they have to take it!
I think long and hard before advising anyone on here, and only do so when I have 'handled' cases like this! My main intention was to try and get the Op not to worry too much, as he seems to be really stressed with all this!
Anyway----no more advice from me, you will be pleased to know----------------------I'll leave it to the true professionals!

[flaminmoses]

they owe me holiday pay.

they initially said that anyone dissmissed does not get ANY holiday....to which i laughed at.

they basically try it on if they owe you money.

either pay it back or offer something reasonable a week/month....dont rush though...send em a letter asking for an explanation/calculation on how they got to their figure.
explain to them you are seeking legal advaice etc.

[stokes11eg]

First time then that an overpayment of wages has been classified as a debt, in the accepted sense! As to the pound a week-if this is all you can afford they have to take it!
I think long and hard before advising anyone on here, and only do so when I have 'handled' cases like this! My main intention was to try and get the Op not to worry too much, as he seems to be really stressed with all this!
Anyway----no more advice from me, you will be pleased to know----------------------I'll leave it to the true professionals!

In Lipkin the House of Lords stated that the argument of estoppel ‘is available to a person whose position has so changed that it would be inequitable in all the circumstances to require him to make restitution, or alternatively to make restitution in full’--I'll be brief here--in LAW--if a person spends money that has been overpaid to him-(in good faith- not realising this was an overpayment, aas it seems was the case here--having taking advice fron his DOM)--he should not have to pay it back. Many cases have been won in tribunals on these grounds!

[mazza111]

Hmmm doubtful as it's in his contract of employment that any overpayments must be paid back, how's he gonna prove what a manager said? We all know 99% of them are full of the brown stuff

[stokes11eg]

Hmmm doubtful as it's in his contract of employment that any overpayments must be paid back, how's he gonna prove what a manager said? We all know 99% of them are full of the brown stuff

Putting aside what the contract says(This is usually written in all contrracts) the LAW regognises that these situations do arise--and again, if the person has spent the money in good faith (Do not of course know the full circumstances of this mans resignation) but if he received what he thought was all monies due--and spent it, in good faith--he can fight his corner----'nuff from me anyway!

[fishtank]

It is a legal minefield involving mistakes in law and mistakes in fact and a lot of legal nonsense and stokes is right in that normally it is very difficult for an employer to recover overpayments without agreement however...and this is the most important fact...the overpayments recovery procedure (2004) is an agreed document between Royal Mail and the CWU and that would most likely swing any legal case brought.
It's as good as having an overpayment clause in your contract.

I would say to the OP though...as long as you make a reasonable offer of repayment...perhaps 10% per month you are unlikely to meet with much resistance...starting obviously when you receive your first pay from your new employer.

[chunder]

Hi, I resigned from RM at the end of July after 15 years. I have just recieved a letter saying I owe them £500 holiday pay as I took 3 weeks leave. I asked my manager could I go at short notice and would my pension be safe and if I would owe them anything. He said it is all OK after he sought advice. They say they have sent a letter previously which I have not responded to. Never recieved said letter, all I have had from them is P45 and letter from pensions. Now this threateining legal action and debt recovery, in 7 days if I dont pay up, nice of them to send it to me on a Saturday so I can do f***k all about it.
I left a week before the £600 payment was due and got nothing of that, also I am sure they do not persue this if someone gets sacked? I may be wrong.
Any advice would be much appreciated from union, managers or anyone who knows.
Have to work a month in advance in my new job so have jack s**t money to give them.

Help!!

Had a mate who had this happen and YES he did have to pay! as others have said make a reasonable offer based on your current circumstances. Not sure what the exact circumstance are here but I'd definitely want to be dealing with RM rather than a debt recovery company and all their additional fee's etc.

Normally your last wages will be a balance of what they owe you for work and what you owe them in terms of holiday etc. You say you resigned.... was this a straight forward 'I've had enough and have found another job I'm off' OR is there a bit more to your resignation??

Was straight forward, been aplying to the same firm for 8 years and finaly got in.