Old job overpaid me by £1,000 aibu not to pay it back?

[redbedgg]

I was in the support group up until the 19th of march on ESA due to mental health (I won't get into details but haven't been well)
I started job the 22nd March.
I wanted a normal life and applied for a job and got it in a large call centre.
I realised it wasn't for me and my mental health wasn't right so after a day I left.
I knew I wasn't well enough.
I couldn't go back on to ESA so had to make a universal credit claim.

I worked 1 day.
At the end of the month I checked my bank and had been paid £1,000 for a full month.
I rang HR straight away and told them what had happened and asked them how I pay it back.
Now any income that is reported to HMRC reduces your UC.
I asked them to do a correction and change my leaving date (as they had put the wrong date )
They said they would.
A month later nothing.
I rang them and they said we have input new details.
They have now input £19 but added that with the date "30th April"and put down my leaving date as the 30th April but haven't corrected my income.

UC have told me my payment this month is £0.00 because of the income showed on HMRC.
I've asked my old employer if I bank transfer this £1,000 will you change my income details or I don't receive a payment.
They've said they can't do it and they aren't telling me what the £19 they've listed is in April.
They've messed everything up.

Aibu to say until you fix your error I'm not paying this £1,000 back.
I have no money for food or rent or bills.
I haven't touched the £1,000
All I want is for them to input the correct details.
Aibu here ?

I don't even want their money.
I just want the whole thing sorted.
I asked a month ago for them to put the correct leaving date/figures but they haven't.
They've submitted incorrect figures twice now.
Stating I've been paid £19 on 30th April
I haven't received that
The £19 doesn't even make sense

Also they are lying to HMRC saying I left on the 30th April
I left the 23rd March

[quote cricketmum84]@Fatladyslim for £100 in 2012 they have definitely written that off. Stop worrying lol 😂 [/quote]
Hahaha yes you are right! Thank you for your help 😁

I overpaid a leaver in March. The director agreed that it was too much hassle to correct as in previous tax year so we have written it off.
It's their mistake the onus is on them to pursue and claim back, and at that point you can negotiate payment plan when your benefits have been received on the understanding that they submit correct RTI and give you new P45. I suspect they cba but it would be nice if they could tell you that ( as I did with my employee) so you can move on!

@Moondust001 have you even read the post/this thread? Or do you need to brush up on your reading skills? I think the OP has made the situation quite clear so stop being spiteful.

@quizqueen

It really p*sses me off that people can just walk out of a job and then straight on to benefits, paid for out of taxes from other people who don't walk out out of their jobs!

Filthy stinking kick people when they are down attitudes like this mean we can’t make progress in this country.

I didn't even realise it would be more hassle for them to correct with it being the previous tax year.
I'm sick of thinking about it all if I'm honest.

@SonnyWinds

There are two issues here: criminal and civil offence.

Criminal:
It is a criminal offence to keep overpaid wages. You did not earn the money, it's not yours and it's illegal for you to keep it. You could be convicted of theft. HOWEVER, if you have reasonably tried to give it back then you've not committed a crime. Using it to barter/bribe/blackmail them does not mean you've reasonably tried to give it back. PP has suggested saying you'll only pay it back when they fix the HMRC issue - that may well make this a criminal offence. Do not do that. Do everything you can reasonably do to give the money back ASAP.

Civil:
If you do not give the money back then, in addition to potential criminal charges, you could be sued by the company to return the money. I assume you had an employment contract with them - how much notice were you supposed to give? I'd assume you violated that notice because it tends to be much longer than one day. So, they could also sue you at the same time for their associated costs (like paying a temporary member of staff or agency staff and for the recruitment costs etc).

In a similar vein, you could attempt to sue them because their negligence appears to have caused you to lose out on UC payments. However, because a) the lack of UC payments is partially due to you breaching your employment contract and b) you have no right to UC payments in the first place, it's unlikely you'll win.

In brief, give the money back and ask as politely and consistently as you can for them to sort out the HMRC issue. Have you spoken to HMRC directly?

Why do people insist on posting such unmitigated and ill-informed rubbish?

@nerdsville

I suspect pp has it right that the reason they haven't corrected it properly is because it happened in March and they'd already completed their payroll year end - it is still possible to sort it out, so likely they either don't know how or can't be arsed to do an earlier year update and sort it out properly. I've worked in payroll long enough to know this is very common unfortunately.

Personally, I'd write a letter (and send it recorded) setting out the whole situation including figures, explaining that you are more than willing to repay the overpayment as soon as they fully correct your RTI record in order to restore your correct position in respect of UC. Be clear that their error has resulted in financial detriment to you and that you are unable to repay the overpayment until they take the necessary actions to restore your position, as this would put you in considerable financial hardship as a result of their error.

Then one of a few things will happen... Hopefully, they'll get their arses into gear and sort your record, you'll get your UC and you can pay them back (best case scenario for everyone).

Alternatively, they might decide they still can't be bothered to fix it properly but that they also don't want to get into a massive argument over a grand, so they might write off the overpayment.

Worst case is they continue to pursue you for the overpayment - the final step of that journey (after a lot of letters) would be small claims court, in which case you'd get to present your side to the judge, show them your letter and ask the employer to explain why they didn't take the necessary corrective actions to restore your PAYE record to its correct position in which case you would have paid them back (as you have reasonably stated in your letter). Hopefully, they'd then be told to do what they should have done in the first place, then the UC side still gets fixed and you pay them back. To be honest overpayments very often don't even get as far as small claims, which is why I suspect them writing off the overpayment - even if it takes a while - might be the most likely outcome out of the three scenarios.

The old earlier year update process was dropped - corrections now go via FPS. Agree with your summary though.

The leaving date HMRC have of 30th April will just be the date the employer's took you off their payroll. Again it's their mistake. As they are saying they sent a payment in April, they can correct this but it's unlikely to change the leaving date with HMRC. I wouldn't worry too much about that.