Thanks once again dx! Your advice is greatly appreciated. I think you forgot the bit where you say "In future contact CAG first." At least I would have saved £69 but I've learned a lesson way more valuable and that's not to ignore a debt just hoping it will go away after 6 years. Here's hoping as a gesture of good will they actually remove it. Although theoretically they could also put a satisfied default on my file as well. The irony is that I only found out because I wanted another contract with EE. They told me I'd never get another EE contract with the AP markers on my file until it was paid off, so that's why I thought it would be resolved. Interestingly Lowell put up a proper fight after their account dropped off the CRA but you're correct. It wasn't written off! They ended up agreeing in writing "to no longer enforce the debt"

Thank you for your reply, DX! I was not under the impression that paying it off would remove it from my file. My file is already trashed so it would make very little difference to any credit score. I am not certain if I can claim compensation for a damaged credit score though. Or for them reporting incorrect information for over 10 years? The original debt has been reported since 2013 as an EE debt even though they had sold it in 2014. It appears to be a breach of the Data Protection Act 1998 Section 13 and this all should have come to a head when I paid the £69 in September 2022, or so I thought. The £69 was in addition to the original outstanding balance and not sent to a DCA. Even if I had paid the full balance demanded by the DCA back in 2014 then the £69 would still have been outstanding with EE. If it turns out I have no claim then so be it. Sometimes there's not always a claim if there's blame. The CRA's will not give any reason for not removing it. They simply say it is not their information and refer me to EE. More to the point EE had my updated details since 2022 yet failed to contact me. I have been present on the electoral roll since 2012 so was traceable and I think EE have been negligent in reporting an account as in payment arrangement when in fact it had been sold to a DCA. In my mind what should have happened was the account should have been defaulted before it was closed and sold to the DCA who would then have made a new entry on my credit file with the correct details. However, a further £69 of charges were applied AFTER it was sent to the DCA and it was left open on EE systems. The account was then being reported twice. Once with EE as open with a payment arrangement for the £69 balance which has continued since 2013 and once with the DCA who reported it as defaulted in 2014 and it subsequently dropped off and was written off by the DCA, LOWELL in 2021. I am quite happy for EE to place a closed account on my credit file, marked as satisfied. However, it is clear to me that them reporting an open account with payment arrangement when the balance is £0 and the original debt has been written off is incorrect? Am I wrong?

Hello Caggers, I've been trying for years to get an old EE account wiped off my credit file. It was opened in 2013 and almost immediately defaulted but was shown as "Payment Arrangement" ever since. I contacted EE by telephone in 2022 and was advised it had not been wiped because there was still £69 owing, I paid it and thought it would correct once the CRA's updated their reporting cycle. However, it has still not been removed. I made a formal complaint on 27/03/2024 and have had contact with the executive team who advised that "EE account ......... has now been deleted from the Credit File as it failed to close as it was reporting the payment arrangement set up despite, as advised this failing which should have resulted in a further default showing. Please be advised the deletions we have completed take 24 hours to update if a paid service is used to view the Credit File. If the customer uses one of the free services to view the Credit File, the recordings update in 24 hours but the changes can take up to 30 days to be visible on a new copy of the Credit File. I have requested compensation and been advised by EE that another team are looking into this. That was almost 2 weeks ago and there has been no contact since, despite me chasing it. I do not want to go to court and would rather settle this amicably. However,I have been advised that I might have a claim for aggravated damages due to the length of time the incorrect reporting has been on my file and the fact that I told EE about this issue and paid the demanded outstanding amount of £69 almost 18 months ago. Should I just wait for EE to reply or should I start building my case against them? Is their statement admissible as evidence of their blame or do I need to dig a bit more? I made a DSAR which was initially rejected as having no data found yet. I trawled my e-mails from 2013 and found the account number and mobile number, I'm now awaiting the result of my 2nd attempt at DSAR. I have very little in the way of proof of actual loss except a mortgage refusal e-mail from HBOS in 2015. I have also had high interest loans and credit over the last 10 years but again cannot directly attribute this to this one specific error. There were other items on my credit file that could also have contributed to a low credit score too and I'm not out to cash in on anything. I want to make sure I don't end up shooting myself in the foot for any obvious reason and would appreciate any help from anyone who has had similar experience with breaches of DPA.

WITHOUT PREJUDICE Conniff, is that all they're paying him? I feel so guilty now about considering legal action Just to update my situation, I've been hounded by their collections team despite telling them that my complaint has been registered with the FOS. They have even called me on my new mobile number despite me never giving it to them. I've quoted all of the above advice, letters, etc; They insist that my complaint is invalid. They also insist that they have every right to contact me over a disputed account as they have had no update from the FOS. The Protection From Harassment Act 1997 quite clearly states: Prohibition of harassment. (1)A person must not pursue a course of conduct— (a)which amounts to harassment of another, and (b)which he knows or ought to know amounts to harassment of the other. (2)For the purposes of this section, the person whose course of conduct is in question ought to know that it amounts to harassment of another if a reasonable person in possession of the same information would think the course of conduct amounted to harassment of the other. (3)Subsection (1) does not apply to a course of conduct if the person who pursued it shows— (a)that it was pursued for the purpose of preventing or detecting crime, (b)that it was pursued under any enactment or rule of law or to comply with any condition or requirement imposed by any person under any enactment, or ©that in the particular circumstances the pursuit of the course of conduct was reasonable. In my opinion the particular conduct of RBS in continuing to contact me once I have already formally informed them that the account is in dispute with the FOS is not reasonable and they are therefore guilty of a criminal offence. Simply not having recorded the fact that I have formally disputed the account is not reasonable in my opinion. These are supposed to be dedicated and specially trained professionals who work in this section of RBS. Therefore, it would be reasonable for the man on the Clapham omnibus to assume that they ought to know that such conduct amounts to harassment. I spoke yesterday with a minion who refused to provide me with their address for service of legal documents, saying that I had to send all such documents to Stephen Hester in Edinburgh. I found their address for service of legal documents on here within 2 minutes, so my only guess is that these minions aren't properly trained to handle such queries. It's all good ammo for my complaint to the FOS, so I'm happy to take the calls but they really should've stopped all contact until the FOS has made their decision, in my opinion. My final dispute letter also quoted VISA regulations and tried to lay the blame with them. In my own humble opinion, the blame is with me for taking out a payday loan in the first place. However, me being stupid enough to use such a service does not detract in any way from the RBS failing to comply with their own terms and conditions not to mention the VISA regulations and the law of England & Wales. I feel as though I have no control over my own money with RBS due to their completely spineless approach. Incidentally, does anyone know who WONGA and the other payday lenders bank with? Could it possibly be RBS Group PLC (Public Lying Company)? I'm a business owner myself and savvy to how such a relationship could possibly amount legally to coercion as well as harassment.

I have exactly the same issues with RBS except with another payday lender. I've had mail going to the wrong address, complaints going unanswered, promised callbacks not being made when requested, threats of DCA's, a fraudulent (confirmed in writing by EE) Orange mobile phone account set up to debit my RBS current account and even a fraud warning placed on my credit file as the RBS had my current home address listed as their own branch. I've had the final response letter only recently and am compiling my complaint to the FCA but just wanted to mention the fact that this also impacts on your Nephew's credit file as it has mine. The un-authorised overdraft will have been reported to them for a full 18 months and I intend to include this in my complaint, as this is the third time that this has happened to me with RBS. I've already been fully-refunded and compensated for the two previous complaints but this time they're digging their heels in. I've been legally advised on the basis of facts provided that I have a cast-iron case and to fight it all the way. I'd be happy if they simply restored my account to its previous position, as it's my credit file that means more than the cash to me.

I can see that many issues here are simply user error or not reading terms properly. The fact that Orange have set up this supposed executive office e-mail address suggests that they already know full well that their customer service is poor compared to other providers. However, are us gullible customers expected to ACTUALLY believe that these messages ever get read by ANY of the Orange executive? What complete and utter rubbish! Just because an e-mail address purports to be a certain thing, doesn't mean that it actually is. Do people really think that by sending a message to the quoted address this will get things moving? Suckers! The only thing that will get the attention of the executive office is if all customers do what many people suggest and vote with their feet. It's like changing banks! Many people threaten that if things don't go their way, then they will leave the network but how many of us actually carry that threat through? How would Orange cope if everyone who had a gripe simply left their network? Well, looking at the complaints on here, I'd say they wouldn't be affected too bad really. Millions of subscribers but only a handful of complaints? I agree that there should be closer regulation but I suggest that the regulators be given more powers to intervene in individual cases and not just the ability to impose company-wide fines based on a preset number of similar valid complaints being reached automatically. Anyone who falls for the mistaken belief that ANYBODY in the executive office at Orange has any time whatsoever for dealing with these issues should have the right to own a mobile phone legally removed from them by a court of law. Notice that when they are unable or unwilling to deal with complex or legal issues that they either reject your complaint or advise writing to the legal department. They have no ultimate power at all! When a company advises writing to the legal department it usually means that they are willing to fight the case in court and believe that they have a more than reasonable prospect of winning. However, there's always the chance that they could simply be calling your bluff and could even be doing this in legal terms! My best advice after many years of dealing with Orange and other mobile service providers both by phone and in writing is to learn the strings to their bow and play them like a fiddle. Calling their customer services can have mixed results - granted. Writing to their customer services seems to be slightly more productive. E-mailing their self-styled executive office with a rant will likely give you a coronary, some Rich-Tea and maybe sympathy but it's still no guarantee that your issue will be resolved to your satisfaction. You simply have to work the systems. The most effective way to complain is to vote with your feet, as I have done many times over my 18 years as a CELLNET/VODAFONE/Mercury/T-Mobile/Orange/THREE/Orange/EE customer. I had my first mobile contract in 1995 and they were ripping customers off then. £4.99 to buy the handset was a small price to pay, I thought at the time. £45 a month later just to have a phone with no text or call allowances and the shine on the deal had already faded! 3 months later I had my phone stolen in a household burglary, only to be told that a mandatory replacement would cost £457. The insurer's refused to pay such an amount and the network insisted on holding me to the contract. The result was that I was £450 out of pocket, despite having insurance and STILL tied into a contract. They're still trying their best now, confusing us with swapables, extras and add-on's. These are all designed to confuse us that much so that we lose track of where we are and the inevitable result is that we get charged or lose benefits we were convinced were cast in solid-gold. The only positive and definitive way out of all of this is to stop using a mobile altogether! Either way, please don't rely on an executive office e-mail address that's more likely some Portakabin on an industrial estate somewhere near Head Office in Darlington that belongs to a company that, coincidentally Orange also outsources other services to. Homework has been done on this one ;-)

Ah, I see! The penny has dropped. I wasn't aware that you were a qualified Psychologist with the ability to diagnose over the internet, let alone stick my nose in where it's not wanted. I'll just go and ask the cat if I'm being passive-aggressive on this one eh? I'm sure his response will be a firm yes as well.

And there was me thinking that this forum was a friendly place where people could help to support each other and resolve issues? BazzaS please don't waste your time researching what you think is an impertinent post! It's quite obvious to me that you have little understanding of the term "Poor customer service" if you feel that my post is impertinent. By the forums own description, a gesture of good will is something that companies do when they know they are wrong and want to silence people. WE are the ones who should be showing them goodwill, as we are the customers. I am not looking for help to resolve this issue, as it has obviously already been resolved on their part. However, I am not willing to let this lie as I feel as though they have ridden roughshod not only over the terms and conditions that I agreed to but also the regulations that apply to this industry. The latter is something that I am uncertain of and it is this that I am seeking help and friendly support with, so I can do without your attempted martyrdom, thank you all the same. I am always receptive to help and greatly appreciate some of the help that has been provided to me by CAG over the years, without the need for me to even post a word on a forum. I simply feel as though IdaInFife has missed my point and maybe has failed to understand that this company appears to be flouting the law in my case by not holding current membership of a regulatory body. This is the matter that I would like clarified if possible but if you are too busy to research and help then I completely understand. I have not asked for that. I am simply asking if anybody knows whether a mobile phone company must by law be a member of a regulatory body and if so, what steps can I take if that company is NOT a member. Jeez, tough crowd today!

Mobile phone regulations! I'm sorry if this isn't clear, IdaInFife but I have mentioned it several times in my post!

Hello Caggers! I have recently had dealings with SHEBANG mobile in relation to a mobile phone contract that I took out. After several wasted days complaining to them about numerous things that they were not sticking to their own terms and conditions about, I finally decided to take the matter further and report them to their regulator. On their website they state that they are members of CISAS. However, on contacting CISAS I have been informed that SHEBANG mobile are not members. I thought that this surely must be a mistake, so I asked for this in writing and received an e-mail detailing the fact that they were indeed not members of CISAS. According to OFCOM regulations any telecommunications provider must be a member of a regulatory body. However, to date I am unable to find any regulatory body that this company is a member of. I have mentioned this several times in numerous e-mails to their operations manager, Matthew Hogsden but in every reply he completely avoids answering the question about regulatory membership. Can anybody at all clarify what the rules are for mobile phone providers and regulatory membership? Are SHEBANG possibly being naughty by not being registered? Is there a body that oversees all of this that I can take my complaint to, regardless of whether they are members or not? I note from my bank that they set up two separate Direct Debits on my bank account, one to Shebang Technologies and the other to Shebang Distribution. On checking Companies House I discovered that Shebang Distribution are in fact in liquidation. Can anyone offer any advice about this, as I am certain that when a company is liquidated that they must by law advise anybody dealing with them that they are in liquidation, particularly when it comes to taking payments from the paying customers. I have now cancelled my contract and moved to another mobile provider. However, they placed my account on suspended service during my contract period despite telling me verbally that they would re-instate my service within 2 hours. I was then informed that although my service had been suspended, it had not been terminated. However, I was unable to make outgoing calls, had some incoming calls stopped and ALL texts, inbound and outbound completely stopped. Does anyone know if this is fair, given that their own terms and conditions state quite clearly that they will only suspend service after persistent failure of direct debits? My direct debit had only failed once, due to me visiting the bank and the bank advising me to cancel one of the two direct debits that they had set up - the one to the liquidated company. Although they have now written off the whole account, am I entitled to compensation for being wrongly advised and the undue anxiety and duress that this put me under waiting for them to re-connect me for 7 days only to find after persistent e-mails that they had in fact disconnected my service. I have also sent them ten e-mails, only one of which has been replied to by their operations manager. I will copy his response, along with some of my previous messages below: Response from Operations Mananger: Dear Mr Daniel Harford-Lyons The service will be ‘ended’ if issues are not resolved within 7 days. A failed payment will lead to an immediate suspension on your account to limit our liability in the event of non-payment and to ensure customers with payment difficulties do not run up unmanageable bills which could lead to personal financial difficulties. The service was still being provided; it was just limiting your access to chargeable outgoing services to prevent incurring a further debt following the Direct Debit failure. We aim to respond to all emails within 2 working days. You emailed on the 7thMarch and received a reply on the 9thMarch. You then sent emails on the 9th, 11thand 13thand are receiving a response on the 14thMarch. The delay is because your message was escalated for my attention. This should have been advised to you by reply on the 10thand 12thof March so apologies that operatives have not kept you informed. Our terms and conditions do state that that we will attempt to resolve written complaints to the Operations Manager within two weeks. Your account will be closed with immediate effect following the comments in your email on the 13thMarch including that you have cancelled your direct debit. I note that there were also difficulties on a previous account that you held with us. For this reason I regret we will be unable to open a further account for you in the future due to unsettled account balances which I have written off today as a gesture of goodwill only due to the delay in responding to you. Kind Regards Matt Hogsden Operations Manager If you have any questions or queries please see our frequently asked questions at ***LINK REMOVED FOR CAG COMPLIANCE PURPOSES*** or you can contact our dedicated team either via email on ***LINK REMOVED FOR CAG COMPLIANCE PURPOSES*** or by calling ‘500’ free of charge from your handset. Alternatively you can also contact us on 0844 324 7161 from any landline (charges will apply). Our Sales team can be contacted on 08081 680138 or via ***LINK REMOVED FOR CAG COMPLIANCE PURPOSES*** Kind Regards Shebang Customer Services Team My original message that prompted the response, along with one of the incorrect names that they have used for me: 13/03/2013 01:30 - holker wrote: WITHOUT PREJUDICE Dear Shebang, I am STILL waiting for a response from you but given the fact that you are currently fighting off HMRC then I guess you have more pressing matters to worry about. I have today cancelled all Direct Debits that you have set up on my account through the various companies that you have, including the one to a currently liquidated company. Despite numerous previous attempts to contact your company by e-mail over the last week, I have only received one reply. Your customer service is by far the most dreadful and appalling that I have ever encountered in my 37 years of life on this planet. You can't even get my name right, you have mis-informed me of my rights and obligations, you have failed in your duty of care to your customers in relation to the service that you provide, you have mistakenly set up Direct Debits on my bank account and now you choose to ignore my messages. Well let me tell you Shebang, Mr Humphrey and anybody else who reads this message that I smiled ever so slightly when I read of your recent dealings with HMRC. Concentrate on making a success of your MVNO, I hear them say in order to survive. Well, in my humble opinion you are doing a pretty good job of ignoring your customers when all you have to do is interact with them. I have signed up with another provider and will never have anything to do with your company again. Moreover, I will vigorously defend any action taken against me in relation to this matter. I will also be forarding a copy of this message to Northants Trading Standards, as I firmly believe that your company is in breach of the Trades Descriptions Act and the Telecommunications Act by quoting membership of a regulatory body on your website when in fact your company are not members of this regulatory body. Regards, Mr Daniel Harford-Lyons Their original response to my 6th complaint is as follows: Subject: Re: [Ticket#2016526] Problems with Your Sheba [...] Date: Sat, 9 Mar 2013 14:34:26 +0000 To: ***LINK REMOVED FOR CAG COMPLIANCE PURPOSES*** From: ***LINK REMOVED FOR CAG COMPLIANCE PURPOSES*** Dear David, Your account is suspended due to non payment of DD, no payments have been taken or made at this time and moment, although your DD details were retaken it has not raised an DD yet to take payment, this would go onto your next bill, unless payment received sooner for missed DD/last bill. Your account will be closed on 2nd April as requested which will generate the final bill. To have your services resumed we will need a payment first for last months billing. If you have any questions or queries please see our frequently asked questions at ***LINK REMOVED FOR CAG COMPLIANCE PURPOSES*** or you can contact our dedicated team either via email on ***LINK REMOVED FOR CAG COMPLIANCE PURPOSES*** or by calling ‘500’ free of charge from your handset. Alternatively you can also contact us on 0844 324 7161 from any landline (charges will apply). Our Sales team can be contacted on 08081 680138 or via ***LINK REMOVED FOR CAG COMPLIANCE PURPOSES*** Kind Regards Shebang Customer Services Team Mr original response to my 5th complaint is as follows: 08/03/2013 18:02 - holker wrote: This has resolved nothing! Your customer support is very poor! Please resolve this issue and provide me with the service that you are in breach of providing! Subject: [Ticket#2016526] RE: Problems with Your Sheba [...] Date: Thu, 7 Mar 2013 20:22:27 +0000 To: ***LINK REMOVED FOR CAG COMPLIANCE PURPOSES*** From: ***LINK REMOVED FOR CAG COMPLIANCE PURPOSES*** Dear Colin Holker, Thank you for your recent email. Our system has attempted to identify your query and provided you with some useful information to assist you. If this has not enabled you to reach a resolution please let us know by replying to this message and a member of our customer care team will respond within 2 working days. You should already have received an email containing login details to your account. If these have not arrived please contact us. By logging on at ***LINK REMOVED FOR CAG COMPLIANCE PURPOSES*** you will be able to access all of your billing and account information, make payments, change your personal details and amend your password to something more memorable. If you have any questions or queries please see our frequently asked questions at ***LINK REMOVED FOR CAG COMPLIANCE PURPOSES*** or you can contact our dedicated team either via email on ***LINK REMOVED FOR CAG COMPLIANCE PURPOSES*** or by calling ‘500’ free of charge from your handset. Alternatively you can also contact us on 0844 324 7161 from any landline (charges will apply). Our Sales team can be contacted on 08081 680138 or via ***LINK REMOVED FOR CAG COMPLIANCE PURPOSES*** Kind Regards Shebang Customer Services Team Any help at all would be appreciated in this matter!

I have started a new thread in the RBS section and explained everything in more detail but do not have enough thread posts on my profile in order to link to it.

Over the last 12 months I have had a total of £1008 worth of charges refunded by RBS along with compensation for the distress that this has caused me. I have also forced them to amend my credit file with all the major agencies in order to reflect the true picture of my finances, as they were reporting my "overdraft" to them. In August of 2011 I visited my branch in order to amend my address. At the time I had a Select Silver account with the bank which I had hardly used on a regular basis. I was persuaded to upgrade this to a Royalties Gold account, as the benefits of this account were more suited to my needs. The RBS failed to update my address properly and I did not receive any correspondence from them at all for a number of weeks. When I queried this again I was told that my address held on file by the bank was my actual branch address and that I would need to visit my branch again to amend my address. I did this on a further two occasions in December and January until I finally managed to get my address changed. I had happily paid the £12.95 monthly fee but forgot to transfer money into the account in September to cover this monthly charge. This made my account overdrawn by £8.13 and I was charged at a daily rate of £6 for this unauthorised overdraft. As I hadn't received any notification of these charges and was not an online banking customer, I was unaware that a debt of £968 had built up because of these daily charges. I contacted EQUIFAX to request access to my credit file, which is another benefit of the account package, I was basically accused of fraud because I had my address down as my branch address. They refused to deal with me any further until I had completed their identity verification procedure, which I duly did. It was only then that I saw the RBS had reported this debt to them and by registering my address as their branch they had caused a CIFAS flag to be placed on my credit file. I contacted and raised a complaint about this with them, which was resolved almost immediately and with minimal effort on my part. However, I was still left with a debt of almost a thousand pounds through no real fault of my own. I then received a flurry of letters and telephone calls from RBS demanding that I pay these charges or they would refer my account to a debt collection agency. My account had already been passed to their collections team in Birmingham who had put a stop on my debit card and cancelled my cheque book without even contacting me, even though they had my mobile phone number on record throughout this whole period. I contacted RBS again as soon as the first letter arrived and spoke to a very apologetic advisor who agreed that it seemed a little unfair that this level of charges had been applied to the account through no fault of my own. He then offered to reduce the amount to £480 as a "gesture of goodwill". I refused to accept this and raised a complaint with the customer service team. I waited over a week then called again, as I had received no reply to my complaint. I spoke again to the collections team and reminded them that they have a duty to treat their customers fairly under BCOBS. I stated clearly that there was nothing in the terms and conditions that I had agreed to which allowed them to treat their own charges as unauthorised borrowing and by doing so they were being unfair in their favour by allowing a debt of £968 to build up. I put all of this in writing to them and received a phone call within 3 days saying that they would be refunding the total amount of charges along with a payment of £40 as compensation for their error, re-instating my debit card facility and sending a new cheque book out in the post. However, to date despite 12 requests and 3 complaints I am still to receive my Royalties Gold welcome pack, detailing my membership benefits in full but I suppose this is a minor issue in relation to the issue I have described above. I feel personally that this is nothing short of attempted theft by RBS and am sure that many unwitting customers have simply accepted the charges and paid up in full to clear their debt and credit file. I also feel that this is extremely poor administration by RBS over a simple issue that they could have resolved quite easily. I believe that they tried to take advantage of the situation on my account and acted irresponsibly by allowing such a debt to build up without contacting me. I would urge other users to fight this issue vigorously to stop this bank from using their customers to recoup their losses or shore up their £2bn in profits!

I've had exactly the same issue twice now with RBS since opening my Royalties Gold account. It seems they ARE in breach of BCOBS by doing this, as they state that the charges are for an unauthorised overdraft. However, this is incorrect as you did not request an unauthorised overdraft. You went overdrawn simply because of THEIR charges. I'd write to them stating that you do not believe they are treating you fairly in this matter and that you will refer the matter to the banking ombudsman should you not receive a FULL refund of all account charges. Out of interest, over the last 12 months I have had over £1,000 worth of these charges refunded by RBS along with compensation for the distress that this has caused me. I have also forced them to amend my credit file with all the major agencies in order to reflect the true picture of my finances, as they were reporting my "overdraft" to them. Good luck and don't give in on this matter as you are more likely than not in the right!

I'm not sure how this ended for Harrison04 but my step-father has just been through a similar experience of being overpaid every month for almost 5 years by an amount totalling over £21,000. Briefly, he's a doctor and should normally get paid for 10 sessions every week. However, from 2005 - 2010 he was paid for an extra 2 sessions through no fault of his own. He had claimed the extra sessions back in 2005 but was promoted at the same time and as they'd been on his payslip for so long assumed that they were a legitimate part of this promotion. He was sent a letter informing him of the overpayment along with a demand to "discuss repayment" from HR and panicked. After reading this thread and we contacted the BMA who advised him that he was legally obliged to repay the money. His departmental head had also told him that it looked inevitable that he would have to repay the £21,000 and that he had been told this by HR. However, I advised him to dispute the overpayment after seeing the excellent advice posted here and helped him draft a firm letter to HR disputing the alleged overpayment, stating that he had sought legal advice and requesting a detailed financial breakdown of the gross and net amounts that they claimed were overpaid. I also worded a section about him having received the payments in good faith and felt in no way responsible and that he wasn't aware of the fact. I also mentioned the stress and worry that it had caused him and that it had meant he couldn't concentrate on his job (putting patients to sleep). Although this is NHS money that has been overpaid here I firmly believe that the law is right in this instance. His manager submitted a claim form that he hadn't even signed which was agreed by HR, signed off by Finance and actioned by Payroll so there's 4 people who should have spotted it but didn't and if you include my step-dad then it's 5. So my argument would have been to split it 5 ways but he got a letter from HR in the new year saying that the overpayment had been written off as it was through no fault of his own but still had an accompanying letter for him to sign to agree to this being the end of the matter!