Maternity Pay Overpayment

[anglespangle]

Hi, I wasn't sure where to post this so I followed the guidance notes and posted it in the Welcome Forum.

 

I went on maternity leave in June 2012. My company's policy is 90% of salary for the first 6 weeks then SMP for the next 33 weeks. For the remaining 13 weeks my job is kept open for me but with no pay (so pretty much standard maternity terms).

 

For months running up to me going off on leave, I kept asking HR to give me details of what my SMP would be. They told me I would receive a letter once my leave started but I never did.

 

From June - November of my leave, I was being paid 100% of my salary. I phoned HR to tell them but no one answered the phone nor returned my call.

 

In December I received a payment of approximately 50% of my normal monthly salary.

 

In January I received nothing. I phoned the Payroll department. They said that HR had forgotten to tell Payroll that I was on maternity leave hence my normal salary payments had continued. They said that HR had told them to stop all further payments to me. My SMP should have continued until April but all payments ceased in January.

 

I tried again to contact HR to discuss what had happened - and also to find out what the 50% payment in December was for. Again, no one answered the phone and no one returned my call.

 

I assumed that the 50% payment was them balancing out their books with what had been paid to me and what should have been paid to me.

 

In March I received a letter advising me of my bonus. The payment did not go into my bank so I contacted HR - and finally spoke to someone. She said that she had not instructed Payroll to withhold my bonus and that she would "sort it out".

 

I chased and chased by email and phone to find out what was happening - receiving no explanation.

Finally a couple of weeks ago I received a letter from HR saying that I had been overpaid and then had recovered some of the money by stopping my payments and by witholding my bonus but they still want me to pay £990.

 

I emailed them asking for a breakdown of how they worked it all out. After chasing several times for this, they emailed me a Payroll spreadsheet of numbers and accronyms that meant nothing to me. I asked them (by email) twice for an explanation of it but they ignored me.

 

They now want to meet with me - I doubt very much if they will intend to answer my questions or explain the breakdown, however.

 

My question is, do I have to repay the money? Given that I did not know how much monthly pay I should have been receiving - despite asking them over and over for this.

 

Further, while I have been on maternity leave, boss went off on sick leave and they appointed someone else in his place (whether that is legal is another question and not my battle to fight!). They did not tell me about this. My husband works for the same company so he found out and told me.

I am not sure if this adds any weight to my case - that they have not fairly kept me in the loop whilst on maternity leave.

 

Thanks in advance.

[honeybee13]

Hello there.

 

You need the employment forum where the guys should be able to help you. I'll move your thread to that forum and leave a short term redirect from here.

 

My best, HB

[Madhatter1]

From what I have read around the forums. Yes if a company has overpaid you, you should have to pay it back plus its the honest thing to do. However they cannot take or withhold money from your wages without you first giving them your permission to do so.

 

I would ask for a simple break down. Ie first payments was supposed to be x amount but you was paid x amount meaning you was over paid by x amount and so forth so at the end of each collum it would have a figure for each month and then at the bottom will have a total. Very easy to understand.

 

I believe a lot of company send you the crazy spread sheets on purpose knowing you wont understand them.

 

I had a underpayment problem from my previous employer and had to do the same. The complicated one looked like my pay was correct but I got ahold of all my time sheets and took it back to basics. Added up every single hour I worked even to the minute for my entire time working there and multiplied that by my basic hourly rate. Gave me a figure which showed I was underpaid by the amount I suspected. It took me 3 months of being told I was wrong to finally prove I was right after going in and showing them.

 

I will warn it can be a long slog and can be very frstrating becuase a lot of companies play on the fact that they know a good portion of there work force will not know there legal rights.

 

I would write out a letter asking for exactly want you want them to do and also explain that you do not give them permission to take any money from your wages until you have seen the complete dsimple break down. Make sure you keep the letter very percise and to the point.

 

Im sure someone with a lot more knowledge then myself will be along soon to give you better advice

[Sidewinder]

Agree with the above, up to the point about needing permission to deduct overpayments. An employer can recover salary overpayments (including Maternity Pay) without reference to the employee if they wish.