Overpayment of wages - repayment rules

[Broodymomma]

Myself and my job share person have been overpaid for 4 months as our work mistakenly amended our wage to full time hours.
Our payslips are electronic and stupidly I had not checked them. My husband puts money in my account every month to save for our vat bill for our business so I had no idea there was a problem.
Luckily for me I know monthly what I have to spend and assuming the money was from our business did not spend any so can pay it back.
Work have said they will take it back over 6 months taking a rather large sum of money which for my colleage is a problem.
My question is the company we work for now only took us over in June and only paid us for 2 months of the overpayment but are reclaiming everything from march. Can they do this? Am happy to pay it back it's not my money but am concerned my old company may come back after it for us also.

I intend to pay it back in full but my colleague can't. What are her rights to agreeing to over £300 of her part time wage being taken every month?

Lesson learnt to check pay slip every month and open an account for our vat bill savings!!

The answer to your first question depends on how the transfer from the old company to the new company happened. If the new company bought part of the old company's business including all assets and liabilities then you owe the money to the new company. If it happened in a different way you may not owe it all to the new company but it is, of course, possible that they are collecting the money on behalf of the old company. That isn't really your problem. Pay the money to the new company. If the old company pursue you for the money you just tell them you have already paid it back and refer them to the new company.

Your colleague should try to negotiate an acceptable repayment term with the company. The chances are they will agree provided she makes a reasonable proposal.