Debt collectors on workers:Angard letter asking for money?

[jerseyspice]

hello everyone

it's just insult upon insult, isn't it?

well ITV may be interested in doing a story... here are the details...

Thank you for your email regarding a possible news item for the ITN News.
You may like to send your email together with your story to the following email address:-

Email: viewer_liaisonc3@itn.co.uk

[Blue29]

Here's something I posted earlier... it may help you, err, understand? where RM are coming from about this debt collection thing...

Sorry don't know how to link to specific post so pasted below.
From P2 of the thread http://www.royalmailchat.co.uk/communit ... 47&t=42238" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Re: 1p paid into account!
by Blue29 » Sat Jan 07, 2012 12:03 am

According to this RM statement (below) those who have been paid 1p are in line for having monies recouped from them. I'd be thinking about contacting my bank with a view to seeing if a blocking of angard can be made. I don't know if its possible to action a reverse payment/withdrawal without the account holders specific say so. But I wouldn't be trusting luck given the record of what has gone on. Anyone know of action people can take to ensure angard don't go taking what they never put there in the first place?

Royal Mail spokesperson Valerie Antoine said: "This is not the experience
of the large majority of the almost 20,000 temporary people whom have
worked for Royal Mail over the Christmas period. It is absolutely not the
case that there is 'widespread' difficulties over pay. The overwhelming
majority of our temporary Christmas workers have been paid on time.

We sincerely apologise to Ms Estrada-Hart and Mr Curtis. We will resolve
these individual cases as quickly as possible.

"Royal Mail is very grateful to our temporary Christmas workers. They have
played an important role in delivering the nation's festive mailbag.

"We are aware that some people are unhappy about receiving a payment of 1p.
In the vast majority of cases, this is because we have previously paid more
than was due to that particular person and we are now seeking to recoup the
amount owed to Royal Mail. We explained that this would be happening when
we made the pay advances. To recoup the amount owed, we need to complete a
pay run and that requires a nominal payment in order to complete a
transaction. We are sorry for any upset this has caused."
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The statement is taken from other posts on this site.
Posted in the hope it helps avoid possible issues.
-Please note I don't have the words to say what I think about all this.-

[dlandy1599]

RECALCULATED USING ROYAL MAIL PAY RATE
SO I WORKED OUT WHAT ROYAL MAIL SHOULD HAVE PAID ME DEDUCTED EXTRA TAX+INS
I WILL PAY BACK THE DIFFERENCE

THE REST THEY CAN SING FOR IT.
SEND IN THE BAILIFFS

[jerseyspice]

Blue29 - good of you to post the post from a previous thread but you will find that post doesn't apply to a lot of us, myself included. i have NEVER had a voucher or received Fastpay yet they're quite happy to unlawfully deduct £300 from me without reason?

Not good at all. Just an insult to all the hard work we all put in.

AND another thing.... IF Angard bothered to send out pay slips to the casuals, so many wouldn't be so confused as to the deductions maybe?

With me, I did receive pay slips. I have been paid about £300 and they have now taken that back so I've been paid NOTHING, I guess I was overpaid, eh?!

[Blue29]

No worries Jerseyspice. It does apply to a lot who have been paid 1p. But since it's the official RM response to the overall angard disaster it was never really going to cut the mustard.

[mahrm1]

Just tell them you can only pay 1p per week back.

[dipzy]

Somehow i owe them £75.75. but i've only received 3 payslips, if i add the hours stated on each one together it comes to 37.5 hours. But i have worked from the 3rd dec 2011 to 24th dec 2011, monday to saturday, 7.5 hours each day @ £6.50 an hour. I've never missed a day but altogether after tax and stuff, i have £270.23 and out of that they say i owe them £75.75 leaving me with only £194.48.

I calculated that i worked a total of 141.5 hours over the 3 week i was working and the pay before tax and NI was: 141 x 6.50 = £919.75

now it obvious that they wouldn't charge me over £700 for tax and NI so they clearly owe me money, not the other way around, im not paying them one bit.

A friend of mine switched to manpower from angard and now he's getting paid on time, with no problems whatsoever. I reckon im going to do the same posting this.

[norma]

I got the letter saying I had been overpaid by £139.

I have sent them an email(address on the letter) saying I have spent all the money and am back on Job Seekers Allowance and can only afford to pay them back at £10 a fortnight. I have asked for their bank details so I can set up a standing order.

I have stated in my email that this problem would not have occured if it hadn't been for their inefficiency and Royal Mail giving us the £350.

All my pay details and what I have been paid are, incredibly, correct.

[torN]

I got the letter saying I had been overpaid by £139.

I have sent them an email(address on the letter) saying I have spent all the money and am back on Job Seekers Allowance and can only afford to pay them back at £10 a fortnight. I have asked for their bank details so I can set up a standing order.

I have stated in my email that this problem would not have occured if it hadn't been for their inefficiency and Royal Mail giving us the £350.

All my pay details and what I have been paid are, incredibly, correct.

If all the details of your hours and pay are wrong on that letter THEN DONT OFFER TO PAY THEM ANYTHING.

They can f**king try and get their money the spinelss f***ing c****. Honestly feel like visiting their offices and having a VERY strong word with them HOW F**KING DARE THEY DEMAND MONEY FROM US!

[fishtank]

Don't just ignore it...and don't just tell them to f**k off.
You have to put the ball back in their court by asking for hard evidence to back up their claims of money owed.
If you just blank them all they will do is pass the debt over to a debt recovery agency and they will not have any interest in what you earned or didn't earn or how unfairly you were treated just the debt that is on the sheet in front of them.
You have to resolve the situation before a DRA becomes involved otherwise it's a world of pain getting that monkey off your back.

[blue123]

At the bottom of the demand letter there is a postal and email address to contact if you consider the statement sent to you is incorrect.

It would be a good idea to email them saying that you've received the letter and consider it to be incorrect. That way you've fully complied with Angard's complaint procedure and would be in a better position to deal with any future legal action that Angard might take. Besides, there's always a chance that your pay issues will get sorted out.

Have I turned into a very cynical person or does this, and the reports of wages being withheld to pay for the method of wage payment, rather smack of a company trying to raise enough cash to pay the Director's bonuses before it goes bankrupt?

[dkaskew]

I was paid 1p for the week before Christmas and was asked to work again in the New Year, and guess what - I got paid another 1p for the week ending 6 Jan. Of course the calculations on the payslip before the 'net deduction' of all but 1p was totally wrong in hrs worked, rates of pay etc as others have described. I decided that irrespective of inaccurate calculations which they could argue were administrative errors and were working to correct, they had no excuse for withholding the pay that they themselves had worked out as being due. That is illegal. The 'Helpline' told me it was "probably" to recoup emergency payments, but when I told them I never had any such payments they had no explanation. I asked for the name of the person and address to whom I should send a formal written complaint for withholding wages (and missing payslips) and was told they would pass the message on and "hopefully someone will get back to you". A colleague who sought legal advice was told she should first put all her concerns in writing in the form of a formal letter but her letter was redirected to another address (not the one given on Angard website and confirmed to her by the Jobcentre). Therefore it seems clear they are making things as difficult as possible even to begin the process of legal redress.

I await with interest my promised statement of hours and pay but hold little hope of it being corrected.

The 'Helpline' should be renamed the 'No-HopeLine' and we should keep up the pressure on both Angard and Royal Mail. If enough people write to MP's, media etc then eventually all this talk of 'only a minority' and 'working hard to resolve the problems' will blow up and they will be forced to face the consequences of their ineptitude - and we will get our wages.

Keep it up folks.

[brian2009]

After One voucher, £350, one weeks pay, and three weeks of 1p, I finally got my Payroll Statment to date. I think it was written by Tommy Cooper!! Any connection with reality was sadly missing. I have emailed twice - No response. Lefty messages with the 'Overflow Message Centre' Now contacted one of the number provided on this site and hope for some form of response to the fllowing:

Hours of employment:
6.30 until 1.30, less 30 mins for meal break
W/ending 10th – 26 Hours – Wed to Sat inclusive
w/ending 17th - 32.5 hours Tues to Sat inclusive
w/ending 24th - 32.5 hours Mon to Fri inclusive
W/ending 31th – 26 Hours Wed to Sat inclusive

Total of 117 hours – excluding holiday pay which I calculate to be 14.12 hours
Gross pay should be £711.36, not the £592.80 that you suggest. This excludes £85.85 holiday pay

I have received your Statement to Date which is incorrect. First the hours worked do not reflect the hours I actually worked. You consider that I worked 97.5 hours, when actually I did 117 hours, a difference of 19.5 hours.
I agree with the payroll payments into my bank account.
I only received a voucher of £350 from Royal Mail. Please provide evidence of the alleged £23.28 additional monies I allegedly received.

I do not owe you £68.48

I have suggested that if I do not hear from them, I shall be going to the Employment Tribunals, who will add an extra 8% to monies outstanding. Perhaps they should pay the 8% as an apology now!! Also any incurred bank charges.

Wot a bunch of absoulute *******

[dkaskew]

I just got my long awaited 'Individual Payroll Statement To Date' from Angard. Talk about rubbing salt into the wound... I cannot bring myself to ring them right now as I normally profess to the adage 'don't shoot the messenger' (for that what the No-hopeLine actually is - a messenger service to protect the ones we should be shouting at). All the statement consists of is a printout of payslips to date complete with all their inaccuracies. This could have been produced at the click of a button at any time since we started working for RM, why it is has taken what they refer to as a " thorough review of all records" for them to regurgitate the same old shite I just don't fathom.

In my own case, concerning advance payments in the form of vouchers etc, where it says "If our records show that such an advance was made, it will be shown in this section" ('How our pay has been made'), there is no record because no such payment was made!

It looks very convincing of them to say they owe me nothing, when in fact they owe me around £450 up to the statement date of 13 Jan, that I absolutely despair for anyone who understandably sees such a statement, written with apparent authority, and therefore thinks it must be right!

This is a scandal that deserves to be exposed utterly - I will look for the most effective way to do this and join forces with anyon ewho has found it already.

[NotReallyRM]

The more I read (on this forum), the more I believe it's all smoke and mirrors, so that they pay out as little out as possible.
They seem more intent on clawing back the voucher money than what they actually owe.
That letter from Mark Higson was a disgrace and shows he is complicit in this charade.

Thanks to the people taking the time and trouble to post helpful links/contacts and experiences.