Overpayment?

[feelcheated]

Hello all, I hope I can get some help here pls

I think the company decided to change their sick pay policy while I was on long term sick leave due to long covid and I never got a letter informing of the change in policy until the a letter surfaced late last month informing of change in sick pay policy dated January 2022. But then, with their change of policy, it seems they still continued to pay on line with the previous policy. I am not sure as I am not an expert in these things.

I will appreciate help in figuring it all out pls

I worked for A Ltd (July 2021 went off sick Oct 2021 due to covid until my sick pay ran out end of March 2022 I think)

A Ltd transferred me to D Ltd & I started working after long term absence from working due of long covid. I left D Ltd March 2023

March 2023, I got a letter from A Ltd about overpayment and there was an email address on the letter which I responded to asking them to explain to how come I have an overpayment because o do not understand and asked they someone calls me to explain but no reply and a week later, I sent another email saying I haven't received a call or a reply to my email but still no answer.

March 2023 I went back to work for A Ltd and while working few weeks ago, my manager called me into a private meeting saying that payroll said I am owing them due to overpayment that o was sent a letter which I did not respond to and I told him and gave him the dates I sent emails to payroll asking for an explanation or overpayment and call and that they never responded.

They offered a pay plan for me to pay back and I told my manager I can not agree to a pay plan because I still do not understand how and why I have an overpayment and that I need them to call me to explain and that they must not deduct my pay until I have agreed because I am single mother with young children & I can afford the proposed pay plan and moreover, I don't wanna pay for something I am not sure I owe & insisted they call to explain things to me but no call.

Few weeks later another manager reached out over the same issue and I told her payroll needs to call to explain to me because I can not understand what it is they wrote and how I got overpaid.

See the letters sent copied & pasted below
NOTE I never received in the post or by email the letter dated January 2022 I saw it for the 1st time few weeks ago when the 2nd manager contacted me and sent me documents consisting of 2 letters dated March 2023, January 2022 and my payslips

January 2022 (never saw this letter until end of last month)
I am writing to advise that we will change the way in which we calculate your pay whilst you are off long term sick from the business. As it is likely that you will be off for the foreseeable future, we have made the decision to replace your normal monthly salary with a payment of SSP.

Prior to this decision you were paid a monthly salary for the entire month of December 2021 (01/12/2021 – 31/12/2021). In addition to this, you will have received an adjustment to your pay by the number of day’s sickness taken during the adjustment period for that month (15/11/2021 – 07/12/2021). You would also have received SSP for this period.

Please note the adjustment period does not run in line with your salary period.

As the company does not pay company sick pay, this means that you have effectively been overpaid. We are therefore obliged to recover all monies that you should not have been paid during your sickness period, and by doing this we will make every effort to ensure that you will not be left in any financial difficulty during the recovery process.

Below are details of how we have arrived at the overpayment amount.

Sickness Recovery
Week Commencing Date
Number of Hours
Hourly Rate

Amount
08/12/2021
40.00
£ 8.91

£356.40
13/12/2021
40.00
£ 8.91

£356.40
20/12/2021
40.00
£ 8.91

£356.40
27/12/2021
40.00
£ 8.91

£356.40
Total
160.00

£1,425.60
Less Recovered

£346.51
Amount Overpaid

£1,079.09

During your period of absence, you will receive payments of SSP in accordance with HMRC legislation. Furthermore, small deductions of your overpayment will be taken to reduce the outstanding value on your return to work.

When you are due to return to work, please ensure your Manager has advised us of your return date. This will enable us to re-instate your salary in time for the following payroll. If there is still an amount of overpayment recovery, we will advise your Manager of the outstanding amount so that a repayment proposal can be agreed.

If you have any queries relating to this letter, please do not hesitate in contacting your Manager (who will be emailed a copy of this letter) or ourselves for a further explanation.

Yours sincerely


Snr. Payroll Assistant

March 2023
Re. Overpayment of Wages,
I am writing to you regarding an overpayment of wages that was discovered through the March 2022 payroll. Due to unpaid sick deduction & overpayment whilst sick it has resulted in you having an overpayment of wages of £223.73 which we could not recover from your final wages. We are now writing to you to seek recovery of this overpayment so that we can correct your record. We have converted this overpayment to a net figure and the amount to repay is £223.73.
Please contact us at stating the reference number (XXXXXXXX) in the subject line so that we can discuss with your repayment options for the mentioned overpayment. Alternatively, you can make full payment via bank transfer using the bank details below.
Account Name: XXXXXXXX Ltd
Sort Code: 00-44-11
Account Number: 53563842
Reference XXXXXXXXX
Please note that failure to respond to this letter within 14 days of this letter may result in us taking further action.

This is the payment plan they are offering me below.
Months
Monthly Deductions
August'2023
£44.75
September'2023
£44.75
October'2023
£44.75
November'2023
£44.75
December'2023
£44.75
Total
£223.73

A lot to unpick here.

Essentially, if you were paid full salary for a period you were sick and should only have been paid SSP then the company are able to recover the overpayment from your future salary payments. They are being fair in offering a payment plan, but if you feel they're asking too much per month then you can try to negotiate a different figure. Ultimately though you would need to pay it back.

I'd be embarrassed to send out the letters they sent you, they're terribly worded. It doesn't sound as though they have changed their sick pay policy, they just have a really clumsy way of saying they need to recalculate your December 2021 salary to account for the 15/11-7/12 absence. Basically, your full salary is more than SSP, they have worked out what you should have been paid for that period and are asking for the overpaid salary to be paid back. That's fairly standard.

There are 2 separate issues here - the overpaid salary from December 2021 when you worked for A Ltd and then the over payment of salary on leaving D Ltd. Are these two separate payroll departments? Are D Ltd looking to recover the monies owed to them via A Ltd payroll? That shouldn't happen if they're separate companies. A completely separate payment plan would need to be set up to make payment to D Ltd, maybe a standing order if you don't want/can't pay a lump sum. Or you can not pay it but a lot of employers refer outstanding debt to collection agencies, so you might not want to chance it.

You absolutely are right to ask that someone explain this to you in a way that you understand, it's pretty poor that you've asked for this multiple times and nobody has responded.

If I were you, I would be proactively chasing this up and escalating to get a response. If your company has an HR or payroll helpline, call them. If not, I would find out who heads up the payroll department and forward on the emails you've sent asking for a call and ask that they help you find someone who can help with your query. Hopefully that will get you somewhere.

Tell your manager that payroll haven't been in touch yet - if they're being prompted to ask you about it, they will know who needs to pick up your query.

They way they've handled this is crap, communication has been really poor and you deserve to understand the calculations. However, it does sound like you've been overpaid and will need to pay it back.

Hope you manage to get it sorted x

Edit for typos

@Adelaff
Thanks for taking your time to reply- much appreciated

Company A and D are both 2 different companies and I doubt they have the same payroll department

I worked for A Ltd from July 2021-March 2022

I worked for D Ltd from April 2022- March 2023

Went back to work for A Ltd from March 2023 - till date

I hope that clarifies things of it was not clear earlier

I think because you said A Ltd transferred you to D Ltd, I thought ithe two companies were connected in some way. I've misunderstood. The letter which refers to taking monies from your final salary is from A Ltd, they're talking about when you left their employ the first time. I see, that makes sense now. So they're wanting to recover two lots of overpaid salary, both from your first employment with them. Gotcha.

Hopefully you can either find someone to help via HR or can escalate so that someone senior sees the crap comms you've dealt with and gets someone to help. I think your manager also has a responsibility to help, not just bring it up with you every so often.

Thank you @Adelaff

I am glad I made things a bit clearer and thanks again for for replies .