Overpaid from previous employer

Overpaid from previous employer

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Abc321

Original Poster:

563 posts

102 months

Friday 8th November
quotequote all
Long story short - little sister worked for M&S part time in the summer, left to go to Uni in Sept.

An email was received yesterday from someone requesting back an overpayment. How do I check if this is a scam or not? They have requested the repayment be sent to them directly. Googling their name brings up a Insolvency and Debt Recovery Specialists, with extremely poor reviews (surely M&S would use a reputable co?)

I assume they are entitled to the overpayment also, M&S aren't a sort of size company I would like to take to court!

Countdown

42,012 posts

203 months

Friday 8th November
quotequote all
Abc321 said:
Long story short - little sister worked for M&S part time in the summer, left to go to Uni in Sept.

An email was received yesterday from someone requesting back an overpayment. How do I check if this is a scam or not? They have requested the repayment be sent to them directly. Googling their name brings up a Insolvency and Debt Recovery Specialists, with extremely poor reviews (surely M&S would use a reputable co?)

I assume they are entitled to the overpayment also, M&S aren't a sort of size company I would like to take to court!
The first contact being from a debt recovery company seems weird. I would have expected her former HR people to write to her.

Your sister should contact M&S HR or her old store and find out

1. Why/how there's been an overpayment
2. Who to send the money to?

Whether or not they take you to Court depends on the size of the overpayment.

Abc321

Original Poster:

563 posts

102 months

Friday 8th November
quotequote all
Countdown said:
Abc321 said:
Long story short - little sister worked for M&S part time in the summer, left to go to Uni in Sept.

An email was received yesterday from someone requesting back an overpayment. How do I check if this is a scam or not? They have requested the repayment be sent to them directly. Googling their name brings up a Insolvency and Debt Recovery Specialists, with extremely poor reviews (surely M&S would use a reputable co?)

I assume they are entitled to the overpayment also, M&S aren't a sort of size company I would like to take to court!
The first contact being from a debt recovery company seems weird. I would have expected her former HR people to write to her.

Your sister should contact M&S HR or her old store and find out

1. Why/how there's been an overpayment
2. Who to send the money to?

Whether or not they take you to Court depends on the size of the overpayment.
Thanks for the reply and yes a good idea to contact HR, I will do that.

The debt recovery company has sent copies of all her payslips etc and so does seem kosher but just wanted to be sure, and wondered if anyone had any experience of it.

The debt is only a few hundred pounds, as I say, it was just a bit of part time work before going to Uni.

The company have been very forthcoming in agreeing a payment plan for her.

southendpier

5,540 posts

236 months

Friday 8th November
quotequote all
Abc321 said:
Countdown said:
Abc321 said:
Long story short - little sister worked for M&S part time in the summer, left to go to Uni in Sept.

An email was received yesterday from someone requesting back an overpayment. How do I check if this is a scam or not? They have requested the repayment be sent to them directly. Googling their name brings up a Insolvency and Debt Recovery Specialists, with extremely poor reviews (surely M&S would use a reputable co?)

I assume they are entitled to the overpayment also, M&S aren't a sort of size company I would like to take to court!
The first contact being from a debt recovery company seems weird. I would have expected her former HR people to write to her.

Your sister should contact M&S HR or her old store and find out

1. Why/how there's been an overpayment
2. Who to send the money to?

Whether or not they take you to Court depends on the size of the overpayment.
Thanks for the reply and yes a good idea to contact HR, I will do that.

The debt recovery company has sent copies of all her payslips etc and so does seem kosher but just wanted to be sure, and wondered if anyone had any experience of it.

The debt is only a few hundred pounds, as I say, it was just a bit of part time work before going to Uni.

The company have been very forthcoming in agreeing a payment plan for her.
Just to add she would have probably signed a contract regarding repaying overpayments. Of course depends on what constitutes the overpayment eg are they clawing back "training costs" etc or a simple error.

Also be careful of agreeing anything with the debt collection company, their service will have fees attached to the job - it may be that M+S have agreed to pay and not pass these on to your sister.


StevieBee

13,565 posts

262 months

Friday 8th November
quotequote all
Regarding the debt collection company.... M&S will most likely have a large firm they appoint to handle outstanding moneys but that firm subs-out the smaller stuff. Or M&S sells debts to recovery firms but who can still use the M&S name within their claims - though this should be made clear in the documents.

It is still worth verifying with the HR department as scams do operate in this field.

A company has every right to claim back overpayments and there is no legal defence on the employer not to. The company has a window of six years from the date of the overpayment to do this.


Regbuser

4,606 posts

42 months

Friday 8th November
quotequote all
Heh, one of ours worked for M&S part time, and finished part way through a month.
She neglected/avoided responding to their HR dept, who asked for the overpayment back.. rolleyes
So of course, next thing there's the debt collectors letters.
Me and daughter had a frank convo, and she agreed a repayment plan with M&S, not the debt co.
Lesson learned, of sorts..

Abc321

Original Poster:

563 posts

102 months

Friday 8th November
quotequote all
Thank you again for the replies, we have contacted HR. See what they say.

That's interesting Regbuster - my sister text me in the morning when it first came through, and I called her to have a chat about it. She was understandably very scared and upset as the initial email threatens court action.

The company seem pretty poor to be honest but as mentioned earlier, it may have been contracted out and the out again.