sorry for the lateness , I have been in bed with flu , but a BIG thanks to everyone who has been kind enough to reply and give advice. It is all appreciated. Thank you all

thanks for that advice. Does it definitely cover employment debts and not just credit cards , loans etc? thanks again for taking the time to help

so should I fill the letter of claim form in anyway and send it to my old employer. I will say I dispute it , give my reasons then if they decide to go to court I have at least shown willing to cooperate. I will state that I will only communicate with them directly. thank you

Thanks, I wouldn't normally give a DCA the time of day. This one though seems to be part of a group of solicitors , Irwin Mitchell , so was wondering if they are a bit more persistant and clued up than some of the others.

Thank you very much for your reply. I think this may be my best option. I am thinking that they may just be trying one last time to scare me into making a payment as its been a year now since they first contacted me and I know Ascent are working on a no win no fee basis. I Will cooperate and return the letter of claim stating I don't owe the money and see what happens I guess. My only concern is that I filled in a flexible working request when I first intended to resign. This didn't mention any salary reduction and all agreements were between myself and my manager. I don't have anything to prove what we agreed. I can only use the fact that I didn't change my benefits on the understanding I wouldn't be losing my regular salary and that I intended to leave but was persuaded to stay because of my managers offer. Thanks again

Hello , I have found this to be a great site giving invaluable help and advice and would like to ask if anyone can advise on my problem. I will keep it as brief as I can. I was employed for 6 years with a retailer who recently changed ownership. I was on a salary contract. I left last December to become a full time carer. In the summer of 2016 I had family problems and informed my employer I would be resigning. They were initially supportive and my manager said I could work a reduced schedule while I sorted my problems out. This was agreed for 3 months initially. I told my manager I would need to inform housing benefits etc if I reduced my hours. He told me I would be paid the same and not lose any money so I didn't change anything with my benefits. My employer continued to pay me my full salary. This arrangement went on for 5 months in the end. At the end of the 5 months I told them that I still had issues to deal with at home and again tendered my resignation. Again they offered me a different choice, stay on but at an hourly rate which I did for the next 2 months before finally resigning for good to become a full time carer. The problem is that the company now say they overpaid me for those initial 5 months and the manager is saying he never said I would be entitled to full pay. They have been getting Ascent legal to send me letters wanting nerly £4000 in overpayments back and have just send me a letter of claim threatening legal action. No official changes were made to my contract - I was salary paid so received a regular amount each month. If I wasn't led to believe I was entitled to full salary I would have claimed the benefits to make up the difference. I cant backdate them now I have told them this and queried why they paid me full salary for 5 months - they say they made a mistake and didn't notice. I did initially say if there was an overpayment I would pay it back at an affordable rate ( my I&e calculation only left me £10ish a month to offer in the event there was an overpayment. Sorry to ramble but if anyone has any advice I will be very grateful. I haven't benefited at all from this situation as I would have actually been better of either resigning as I intended or changing my contract officially to 15 hours and claiming benefits. Thank you if you can advise