An ex employer (well known supermarket)wants to reclaim £87 which it claims it over paid me.

A little back ground information ..

. I left after receiving a large bill from the tax office of just under £1700 as my employer had not been deducting the money from my wages, something I should have noticed I hold my hands up the that.

When I joined them I was placed on emergency tax correctly then the code changed I thought it had been sorted.

What they failed to do was take my pension into consideration when the code was set.

They were made fully aware that I had retired from the fire service and was receiving a pension.

After receiving the tax bill 2015/16 which i obviously had to pay, I still face another for 2016/17.

..my position with the supermarket had become unworkable so i left.

I feel very agreived over the tax bills and now the supermarket are chasing me for £87 they claim they over played me in my final salary, via their solicitor!

Should I pay or let them take me to court?

Whats your contract say?

I asked for copies of pay slips, holiday entitlement, time taken and a copy of my contract. I received all but the contract. I do not have a copy myself. So could request it again. They are demanding I pay within 7 days or make arrangements for repayment within the 7 days.

bet the letter doesn't say WILL anything.

is it DWF?

No it doesn't say.. Will ... lots of... COULD and MAY ect. No it's a different solicitor company who like to give deadlines which I expect it pretty standard!

there you go a threat-o-gram.

never seen Tesco go anywhere near a courtroom door for £87

What company is it. could , may, might shows they are extremely likely not to, so theyre just scaring you.

Drydensfairfax is the company

Ultimately they could take action to recover the money, but you are certainly entitled to have full sight of any information needed to verify the amount owed.

The title is a little misleading - have they already paid your final salary or was the overpayment a part of your final salary? I am assuming the latter

The questions I suppose are whether you 1. Acknowledge that there was an overpayment, 2. agree with the amount. If so then negotiate an agreement to repay it by instalments that are affordable. The fact that the employer made a mistake is irrelevant

If though you took sufficient action to question an amount that you thought might be wrong and were given assurances that the money was legitimately yours, then you could have a defence of Estoppel to any later action taken to recover the amount. The defence would be that the Claimant is estopped from recovery as you can demonstrate that you felt entitled to the money and have changed your position (spent it) in good faith

Beyond that - and certainly at this stage - I agree with the others that this is a threatogram and unless you receive something properly constructed and headed as a Letter Before Claim, it can safely be ignored

I have also moved your thread to the Employment Forum for now

Thank you for the advice and Information. I have requested a copy of my contract again. This time I have put a deadline on it. Lets see what happens.

any update yet?

could you have calculated that there was an overpayment from the pay slips you received (or p45)?

If the overpayment was down to different tax codes then it would be unfair to say that you should have been expected to know.

Was the amount of money you received what you expected?

If they paid you for more hours than actually worked you cant really say you expected this pay but if it is not an error of hours or rate of pay and you expected to receive the money then there is a thing called estoppel that limits their ability to take action to recover the money.

As it appears as though you can afford to repay this small amount I would tell them in writing that you will pay back the money as soon as it is explained exactly how much was overpaid and that you require a full breakdown of you pay to date tax deducted, tax code used etc along with the calculations as to how this amount was reached. you may find that they have still got it wrong but any change will be telling