My colleague came to me in tears and asked to borrow 3k

[Motheroffive999]

She will lose her home and has 3 weeks to find it.
I didn't know what to say , I don't have that amount of money , I have some savings but not that much , and I may need it.
Today she asked for 1k which of course I still do not have at my disposal, but could get it in a few days.
I am torn , I don't want to be unkind but she has bought things recently , lots of small things , things that I do not have the spare money to buy.
What can I do ?

I'm intrigued - where can I find a reference to this "Duty of Care" that we have in the UK as you claimed in your earlier post??

It’s a police statement, a council statement and probably lots of places

Here's your exact post for reference in case you've forgotten

Does it include paying off employee debts for them?

None of those have anything to do with lending money to people, no matter how they became skint.

Stop talking bollocks.

God no. You hardly know her for a start.

Tell her that you’re sorry but you don’t have the money to lend her, but definitely sign post her to Shelter so she can talk through options regarding her house and to a debt agency. She’s an adult, she’s more than capable of making a few phone calls and asking for help.

Definitely do not give her any money. It will become a habit then. As other posters have said, tell her to contact the payroll department and see what they can do.

How will she have the means to pay you back?

Google Duty of Care if you want to find out

Ok whatever 😂

LMAOOO

"No, an employer's duty of care does not involve paying off an employee's personal debts
. The duty of care relates to ensuring a safe working environment, both physically and mentally, and meeting legal and financial obligations related to employment, such as payroll, but not the employee's personal finances. However, there are programs for employees to claim unpaid wages from an insolvent employer.
What employer duty of care includes

• Physical safety: Ensuring the workplace is safe, providing safe equipment, and implementing safe working practices.
• Mental well-being: Protecting employees from risks to their mental health.
• Legal and financial obligations: Adhering to laws like paying wages on time, providing statutory payments, and fulfilling financial responsibilities to employees, particularly in the event of an insolvency.

What employer duty of care does not include

• Paying off personal debts: An employer is not responsible for paying the personal debts of an employee, such as a mortgage or credit card bills.

What to do in case of unpaid wages from an employer

• If an employer becomes insolvent, employees may be able to claim certain debts owed to them, like wages, through the insolvency process or by applying to the Redundancy Payments Service.
• Specific claims for unpaid wages, redundancy payments, or other statutory payments may be payable out of the National Insurance Fund or by HM Revenue & Customs."

Ours ended up with all of usone by one being interviewed by management after I was asked then overheard soomeone else mentioning they lent money. I did bit of pissed of Agatha Christie and then brought it to management. No one else wantedtoblow it up for some reason.
Turned out it was a case of EVERYONE, except management, being asked and dates often corresponded with repayment of previous loans. Except the people who felt too sorry or I don't know and mever chased of course. They got nothing back so she was quids in. New person as well! Only few months in.

Organisations have a duty of care to their employees and the people who use their services but, no, individuals do not have a 'duty of care' towards other individuals regadelss of where they were born or live.

If you do that you'll 100% never see that money again. Also worrying that she dropped the amount to try to get at least 1k off you.
Don't do it OP.

You shouldn't have to ask. You barely know this person. If they are being honest about the amount of time they have left before losing their house, this will have been going on for a long time, and as you say, you're aware of them spending on frivolities recently.

Ultimately you cannot lend anyone, friend, family or otherwise, money if you're not able to write that money off and accept the resulting damage to the relationship that will cause.

As for informing your boss, you should absolutely do his if you are uncomfortable with the requests.

Can she get a wage advance. Many companies may do this in dire circumstances.
Do not give her the money. You will probably never see it again or will come back to you in miniscule payments. Unless you have a written contract aswell then she can just claim it was a gift from you and never pay it back.

She’s a pisstaker, and I would imagine what she’s doing is almost certainly gross misconduct.

I would bet my house that she’s approached multiple people both now and in the past and has quite a nice little sideline going.

No genuine person approaches a random colleague and asks for £3k.

Unless she’s a close friend I would go to HR and tell them that you’re concerned she’s scamming people out of money.

Duty of care my arse. The employer has a duty of care to all employees, and that includes protecting them from this woman.

She should be fired.

Did she leave her last job under a dark cloud of debt to colleagues? There'll be a back story here.

OP you will never see that money again. Do not feel guilty. I would only give my family that sort of money and thats only because they are the only people I would happily forgive £3k if they struggled to pay it back.

She is taking the piss only knowing you 5 months as well, I'd bet a hundred quid shes done this to some other poor schmuck. In fact the minute you give her £3k she'll call in sick to work the next day and you'll never see her again. Xx

Absolutely it is a nice sideline. A few quid here and there - or substantial amounts - from colleagues is a great supplement to wages.

I’ve had this situation at work and did lend the money. She would always pay me back but the amounts and frequency increased each time. Eventually she stopped asking but also hadn’t paid me back. Turned out she had been borrowing money from about 20 of the 30 people at work and borrowing off one to pay back another and the MD found out. We ended up agreeing between us to call the loans a gift so the lady didn’t lose her job. The MD gave everyone a cash bonus for roughly the amount we had all lost.

I learnt a valuable lesson that day and whenever I am asked to loan money I always think about whether I am willing to gift it to that person. If I am then I do just that. Otherwise it’s a “sorry I don’t have any spare cash”.

NO. Totally inappropriate at work. Direct her to speak to her line manager as the organisation may have options in place to help her.

No effing way! "Sorry, I don't lend money" or "I'm not in a position to do that". Absolute cheek!!

I wouldn’t read this as a duty of care to give her the money 🤣 it means a duty of care to signpost her for support or to flag this with management. Lots of industries would have that.

Exactly. And the reason why scamming is so rife is because of gullible people like the OP and others on this thread who believe her narrative.

I’d be inclined to google her and see if you can find out more about her.