Repayment should always be net. Employers can contact HMRC and amend their previous year end returns - this gives then the tax & NIC's and adjusts your records. It can be done most small / medium employers may not have heard of this but ask them to speak to HMRC and explain that they made a mistake on the P35 / P14 and want to substitute an amended copy for your record. Hope this helps.

Twoofus - the act actually states: Sections 13 to 15 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, under the heading "Protection of Wages", provides the right not to suffer unauthorised deductions and the right not to have to make payments to the employer. Deductions and payments from wages are only lawful if they are required or authorised under a statutory provision, or they are required or authorised under a relevant provisions of the worker's contract, or the worker has previously agreed in writing to the making of the deduction. Having defined the requirements for a deduction to be lawful, the Act then provides six exceptions from the rules, among which are the recovery of overpaid wages and business expenses, and a deduction that is made because a worker has taken part in a strike or other industrial action Employers can seek to recover an overpayment through the courts. So Kluged please see my previous post to see if you have a defence. Whatever the position on the overpayment you still have a right to be paid for your latest work. What your payroll may do though is produce a payslip paying you and deducting the overpayment in one fell swoop. Be aware though that even the most recent work will accrue some small amount of holiday pay. It is also worth noting that if say your holiday year runs April to March any unused entitlement can't be carried forward automatically. I hope this helps.

Can I just add my two cents in here as a payroll manager. Employers are allowed to recover an overpayment of wages but employees do have some defences they can use: 1) Estoppel - an employer can not recover an overpayment if ALL 3 of the following have been met - i - The employee did not cause or contribute to the overpayment. ii - The employee has spent the money in good faith - believing they were/are entitled to it. iii - The employer must have actively confirmed that the money was correctly due to the employee. A payslip or P60 / P45 is not an active confirmation but a call to the payroll dept and a response of 'it's correct you can spend it' is fine. 2) The second defence that is a relatively recent development - 'Unjust enrichment / change of position'. To save going into detail this is a good overview: Deductions From Wages Thanks

Update #1..... 'Without admiting any liability... blah, blah, blah... as a gesture of goodwill(!)... blah, blah, blah... we will refund the difference between the OFT recommended £12 and the fees charged some £200ish blah, blah, blah...'. Now I didn't really expect anything else but at least it was going in the right direction. Then before I even had chance to respond with partial acceptance / what about the rest plus interest? then bugger me if Barclaycard haven't sent the account to a commercial debt collection agency to recover. Now I might not have made a payment for a good number of months but that is because I dispute the whole balance they claim I owe. Anyhow I called the debt collection agency and told them the balance isn't owed and is in dispute. I'll follow this up with a letter. Next to Barclaycard - points to take forward this time 1) a LBA for the remaining balance plus interest and 2) accepting their partial offer (although they have already credited my account). My question is should points 1 & 2 be dealt with in the same letter? Many thanks 49scream.

Hi All - lets go for Barclaycard (an old foe of mine). I've sent my SAR - had my letter about the microfische system (yawn) - then on Friday bingo 6-years complete statements arrive on my doorstep. Having a little time tonight I calculated my charges c£600 then started to think about interest. I finally decided on the compound interest route. I've taken the monthly rate from the statements and applied this to the first charge in 2001. I carry forward this figure and apply next months interest rate (remembering to add any new charges - if ther are any). To date this produces another c£375 in compound interest. I have made no allowances for the '£12 fee' and have claimed the full penalty. I want Barclaycard to justify even the £12 - LOL. Prelim in the post tomorrow.....

Hi All - my story goes like this: SAR - Prelim - LBA - full offer from our friend Stuart c£1.5k all within 8-weeks! Now this was my #2 account next up is my #1 account c£4k. I chose to keep the claims seperate as the combined the total was greater than £5k. I wonder if Stuart takes the same route with a slightly larger claim? Donation on its way once my account is credited.

Mrs 49scream looks a little like the cat who got the cream at the moment!!

Now I have my own issues with NatWest & Barclaycard but Mrs 49scream sent a letter after some incredulous charges were applied to her Halifax account this month. Mrs 49scream has heard me banging on about charges for a while now but tried her own approach - she just sent them a letter and asked them to calculate charges for 6-years. I know, I know templates SAR, prelim, LBA etc.... However the letter went off last week and this morning a leterfrom Customer Relations Leeds offering a straight £3k!?! Gob smacked was I. Now I know there is no breakdown and this is in 'full & final settlement' but Mrs 49scream is very, very tempted. I just wonder what the actual figure is if the opening offer is c£3k? Thoughts anyone?

Hi Nattie - thanks for the heads up but I never thought there was anything odd here (that was Petrafydes thought). I was just pleased that my charges were confirmed as 'penalty charges' in writing from NatWest. That made me smile! As you say whatever NatWest's counter arguements are they are all penalty charges in the end. That's why NatWest settle. My Premium account title could have changed to a advantage Private - I wouldn't know. I can't see any benefits apart from the transfers as I have no overdraft, Mastercard etc... Maybe I should change back to a basic account. Cheers 49scream

I got a receipt from the local Branch Manager for the statement I returned (albeit on a letterhead). I mentioned breaching DPA as an aside as the Branch Manager isn't the person I want to take this issue further with though. This leads nicely into why all my statements havn't been forwarded to me? It is more than possible someone else now has my details! These two strands will form the basis of my complaint. I may also have run the statement through my scanner before taking it into the branch - who knows!

There might not be anything quite so sinister here - I've had these letters regularly for at least 6-months - whenever a transfer takes place that is instigated by NatWest. The letters come from my Premium Account Manager (now morphed into Relationship Manager - though the actual person changes about every 6 to 12 months) at branch level. While the reply to my S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) came from a seperate unit in Edinburgh. I just don't think NatWest are that sussed - certainly not 6-months in advance. Though I will look out for any new angles from their legal team!

Update - I received more statements today but there are still some missing - grrrr! I also received a letter in response to my S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) from Joyce E Tudor - Retail Regulatory Risk in Edinburgh. She gave the following response to the manual intervention question on my SAR - 'With reference to your request concerning any 'manual intervention' to the administrative charges debited these charges have been processed in accordance with the terms and conditions of our agreement with you as a result of the activity on your account. In the event that you breach the terms and conditions, we will take the appropriate action, contacting customers when appropriate, or handling customer enquiries regarding their account status. When a customer has raised a concern in relation to this process, the decision will be communicated to the customer and where appropriate noted on the account.' Seems fairly standard stuff - basically a 'no' then! In the same post I also received three separate letters from my 'Relationship Manager' informing me on each occasion that he had transferred money from my #2 account to my #1 account: and in all 3-instances stating that this was to '...honour items presented and reduce penalty charges...'. Now I particularly like the term 'reduce penalty charges'. Now if that is not an admission of what these fees actually are then I don't know what is. I've a feeling these leters will feature in my claim at some point. Anyone else got anything similar?

I posted off my S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) 10-days ago for statements on 2-accounts with Nat West. Today I received a shoddy brown envelope with complete statements from my #2 account (charges c£1400 + interest) but only half the statements from my main account. I also received a statement for a Mr S Mills who has/had a £33,000 overdraft - now where do you get one of those! So I toddled off to my local Nat West and managed to see the manager purely by chance (this is not my actual branch but Nat West refuse to transfer an account once opened?!?). The manager pulled my record up and saw that the statements had been produced in 2-batches but that the second batch had the note: 'delivery address unconfirmed hold for 1-month'. Now is this ineptitude or a delaying tactic? Now being sent to me. Managerchapy did say they were getting a lot of these claims and that they couldn't be handled in-branch but have to be sent to a seperate unit. He also said that he knew many of these claims were being settled and didn't go to court. I'll keep you all posted - Cheers 49scream

Hi All - in light of recent advice from Zoot I will put my claim on hold. However, I would be interested on other opinions here. This is with specific regard to BOI's ERC clause listed above. The jist of this is that BOI charged the 6-months penalty interest to off-set their losses. Now I presume this to be a) admin (maybe - but not £4k!!) and/or b) the cash-back not being recouped by the stipulated term being seen out (the tie-in). Now there is no argument from me that I entered into and agreed to this clause. The point being I expected it to be reasonable and do exactly what it said - to recompense Bank of Ireland Mortgages for the loss which will be suffered if the mortgage is redeemed early. Clearly this is a penalty? BTW I have no claim for late payent penalties against BOI. Cheers - 49scream

Update - letter from BOIHM confirming receipt of SAR dated 15/01/07 - just crossing the days off now! SAR's to Nat West & Barclaycard also sent....

Just tried to open a parachute account with the Co-op - just a basic account: electron no overdraft chequebook etc... I got the Spanish inquisition: they wanted a complete income / expenditure ruck of data. 'Why?' - 'its just standard' - I walked away. I've see some questions on wage payments: most contracts of employment stipulate that you will only be paid into a bank / building society account. They may say this but they will in most cases pay into someone elses account providing you give your written authority. Failing this they will (under duress) pay you by cheque - you then have to go to the sharks like Cash Convertors to get £ s d. The basic Post Office account is also useless for wages as it doesn't accept anything other than DSS Benefits payments - so you can't have wages paid in by cheque or BACS transfer. Hope this helps - 49scream

Thanks PaddyM - found a few BOI but my raw deal is with BOI Home Mortgages Ltd who operate in England. Basically I was charged an ERC (six months penalty interest) after receiving a Cashback at the start of the mortgage term. Now there is a clause that states: 'In the event of a whole or partial redemption before XX/XX/XX (I did by about 12-months) the borrower will in addition repay 6-months interest on the amount of the redemption calculated at the Interest Rate. This interest charged for early redemption of the mortgage reflects the inducement which the borrower received to enter into this mortgage and is to recompense Bank of Ireland Mortgages for the loss which will be suffered if the mortgage is redeemed early.' Seems a ERC to me but I'm just starting on the road and would value an opinion re: the cashback element. Thanks 49scream

Good luck - I'm watching with interest as I have just sent my SAR to BOI Home Mortgages Ltd in Reading-UK for 4k ERC from 2003. Keep fighting!

Hi - just sent a S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) to the above for ERC amount from 2003. I'll keep you posted. A donation if I win - this site has been a minor revelation! Does anyone have any info on BOI - can't seem to find any threads? Many thanks.

Thanks for the info (esp NATWESTSTAFFMEMBER). My account was threatened with Credit Management Services 2-years ago but they avoided this by 'forcing' me to take out a c10k personal loan - very clever. At the time my business was failing but I'm now solvent again (the business is no more) and in gainful employ. I'm going to claim my charges back (+ Barclaycard) and see what happens. If Nat West do close my account will this prevent me from opening an account with another bank? Thanks Ian

Hi All - I'm just starting this with my branch of Nat West - Data Protection Act disclosure request to be posted this week. However I was wondering what the consequences might be? Does anyone know if Nat West close your account if you attempt to recover these charges? Is there a corporate policy here or do Nat West do things on a branch by branch basis? Thanks Ian