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

Estoppel springs to mind

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

you can ignore the silly DCA for a start

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.

Ignore them. Theyre still a DCA. They cant do anything. Only the OC can. You need to write and dispute the alleged amount owed with the old employer, so you can put it into dispute. All the DCA's are as clueless as the others and are essentially muppets for hire. So are their pet solicitors.

Remember, the solicitors just do whatever they are asked to do, and get paid for it. Once they file any kind of claim, if that even happens, they run off as they have got their money.

its not like a criminal solicitor who asks the background. All the DCA is told is that " so and so owes me money. Go get it for me and we'll split whatever you can get".

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

Don't ignore the DCA!!!

Write to them telling them that the debt is disputed.

Also tell them that under the Financial Conduct Authority’s Consumer Credit Sourcebook (7.5.3), they are under an obligation cease all collection activities if the debt is disputed.

Under the same guidelines (7.14.6), they are to inform the owner of the debt immediately that it is disputed.

They most likely will keep writing you but keep repeating the same guidelines

Never give them your personal details.

Never ever ignore them!

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

why shouldnt they ignore the DCA? the dca has no legal rights apart from asking you to pay. Deal with the employer direct.

Don't ignore the DCA!!!

 

Write to them telling them that the debt is disputed.

 

Also tell them that under the Financial Conduct Authority’s Consumer Credit Sourcebook (7.5.3), they are under an obligation cease all collection activities if the debt is disputed.

 

Under the same guidelines (7.14.6), they are to inform the owner of the debt immediately that it is disputed.

 

They most likely will keep writing you but keep repeating the same guidelines

 

Never give them your personal details.

 

Never ever ignore them!

?????? :noidea:

he has a history of giving very strange advice

 

Also tell them that under the Financial Conduct Authority’s Consumer Credit Sourcebook (7.5.3), they are under an obligation cease all collection activities if the debt is disputed.

 

Sorry but this advice is basically wrong. It is much more complicated than this user has told you. Also the rule is routinely ignored

your managr told you that there would be no change so there was an expectation to be paid this money.

The employer can of course override the manager and claim they made a mistake and ask for the money back.

That is the limit of their powers though,

as already mentioned they are estopped from CLAIMING it back because there was an expectation on your part on no bad faith.

In short,

you thought you were being paid the correct amount and have spent it on that expectation rather than as a windfall.

( for example the employer accidentally paid you £10k one month instead of £1k and you went on a spending spree knowing or thinking that it was wrong).

They would be very foolish to try and recover the money using the civil claims process.

i would ignore the dca,

they have no powers or rights in this matter,

they are like estate agents,

they just do what they are told to do and cant make decisions for themselves.

If the ex-employer writes again let them know that you were told you would be paid and therefore had an expectaion to receive the money and its is a matter of estoppel and you therefore dispute any claim to recover on those two grounds

The employer will argue that a mistake was made and that there was no entitlement to the money. You would counter that the employer agreed to pay full salary in recognition of your status as a valued employee experiencing a temporary family problem

No paperwork to support or refute that assertion - stalemete. A court could never come down on one side over another

Proving estoppel is a tough test.

It can’t be satisfied by mere assertions

You have to provide evidence, especially evidence that your manager agreed to paying you same amount on reduced hours.

If your ex-employer has “sold” the debt to the DCA that means they (the DCA) legally owns the debt.

They can and will come after you. It would be legal

Like my previous advice; don’t ignore them!

Sending several emails is less stressful than going to Court.

Judges are usually cross at people who have behaved unreasonably.

Ignoring the DCA would be seen as unreasonable conduct.

Communication always saves a lot of headaches.

Don't just give them your personal details

they havent sold it to the dca otherwise they would have had to notify this to the debtor as per the Property Act 1925. The word AGENCY rather gives it away, they are an uninterested third party. Debt buyers pay about 6p in the pound for debts so your employer is unlikely to go down that route so early on.

Therefore you can ignore the dca.

estoppel requires what is known as "a clean pair of hands" and that test is not as hard as dondada suggests, it is "reasonable expectation"

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