Help, JPA charging me £1600 on 'overpayments'

[Tamar217]

I got a letter in the post today from JPAC Post Service Debts


Dear Mr -----

Notification of debt on discharge

I am writing to inform you that after an internal audit of our records it has been noted that there was a debt of £1619.50 outstanding on your pay account.

This debt has arisen due to Basic pay arrears. I have enclosed the relevant Pay statements and re assessment statement that occurs how the debt has occurred. We have reassessed any Tax and National Insurance paid on this overpayment and therefore the outstanding amount is a NET overpayment.

It is now requested that you make some form of payment to clear the debt, either by one payment or monthly instalments of a suitable amount.

Many thanks in anticipation of your cooperation in this matter. If i can be of any further assistance to you, please don't hesitate to contact me. I can only apologise to you for this inconvenience.

--------------------

Im 19 and I was in the Navy for 4 months back in '07 as a midshipman, but i failed the flight grading and went VolWFT so i could train myself. I have have a PPL and im studying ATPL, I have no money to pay for this and had no idea it was coming.

Do I have a leg to stand on? Has anyone else suffered this? All my training has been so expensive so far ,this is going to cripple me to the point I might have to give up flying.

[D-IFF_ident]

If it was me, and I could verify the amount as received and owed, then I would send a comprehensive explanation of my current income v expenditure and offer "monthly instalments of a suitable amount", say a pound per month?

Good luck.

[FL575]

Hello,

I found myself in this position.

After doing a little research, I found that if it was reasonable that I could have 'spent' the excess payment, I could not reasonably be expected to repay it. I did not have to repay it.

There was a court case about this, and the MOD backed down.

Hope that this helps.

[Scribbly]

You could write and say there's no way you could have had any training on JPA during your time in, and therefore it's unreasonable for them to expect you to understand what was going on in your pay statement. In fact, as you were under pretty intensive training you were relying on your specialists to ensure it was correct and had been lead to believe it was - you had other things to worry about.
They won't pay any attention but your letter and their reply will be of great interest to your MP. You might not even have to go to your MP, just tell JPAC you're thinking of it and who knows, all your problems might go away overnight.
The Citizens Advice Bureau give good advice on things like this, and might even know a good solicitor who will pull apart JPACs argument if need be. It shouldn't get that far, so don't worry about that just yet, you can drag this out for ages until you have got the ATPL, are earning pots of money and then promise to pay them back at five pounds a month...

Good luck!

[Brown Job]

There is every chance it is a mistake JPA is well known for creating debts that do not exist. It would be helpful to know the details in order to advise you.

[Tamar217]

I have kept all of my pay slips and after comparing them with theirs I couldn't find anything wrong, but when I looked at the copies they sent me as 'proof' it is obvious they have simply paid me for the month after I left. I never got this pay-slip and when the 1520ish turned up in my account in the said month I assumed this was the tax rebate for what I had paid based on my predicted earnings of 14,000, but as I earned under the personal allowance I was entitled to a refund, therefore the money was spent towards my PPL.

It is hard to make heads or tails of some of the sheets of proof i have been given and so i cant quite work out why this figure is so high, i was only earning about 800 a month after deductions

[glad rag]

Sorry but you think this is bad?

I hope you can sort this out, but please hear me when I say DO NOT APPLY FOR WORKING FAMILY CREDITS EVER

You have a fair chance of having this charge annulled, HMRC will never let you go.

good luck.

gr

[Brown Job]

You should contact your last unit admin office (soonest)and request they fax you the DIN on overpayments. Then fill in the Annexes objecting to refunding the overpayment on the grounds that the unit never sent you the pay statement and therefore you did not know an overpayment had taken place. Send the objection paperwork to SPVA (address is on the Annex) and wait out.

[Bladdered]

They did the same to me almost 12 months after leaving - I ignored them for a while but ended up agreeing to paying a nominal amount for a long time! Seems that if it is a Public Debt they will go to court.

I took advice from a firm that provide my current Company employees with legal advice and although I argued that I had received the overpayment and had spent it not realising in the flurry of payments that are terminal gratuity and final pay that I had been overpaid by about £300. I was strongly advised that I should agree a settlement as the law was on the MODs side despite what I may have read on similar cases on the Internet. I accept that it was an overpayment and that I should have noticed...however, it still grips you when after 30 years of unpaid overtime and countless dets in gruesome conditions some spotty civil servant chases you for a public debt. Who owes the debt:ugh:

Ed

[adminblunty]

Employment Rights Act 1996 s13 and s14 apply.

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1996/ukpga_19960018_en_18#pt13-ch1-pb1-l1g192

In essence you need to repay them. Plead poverty and go for a long term repayment plan.

Adminblunty

[Tamar217]

Thanks very much guys, after the above posts I am just going to have to argue small repayments but not argue the actual amount, sadly.

I've taken on extra days at work, but it gets me down a bit that all the money I was saving for my next licence is now gone :(

[Safety_Helmut]

Tamar
I got a bill for about £160, 6 months after leaving, for an overpayment in the form of an advance for resettlement. After they eventually provided the evidence to show I owed it I completed the form to say i would pay it back at £5 per month by standing order, no argument or justification required. They just sent a letter saying thank you.

Always struck me as odd that initially they expected me to prove that I didn't owe what they claimed, rather than the MoD proving I did owe it. They didn't supply any paperwork to support the bill for over 3 months. In fact they expected me to go to my former unit and access it all via JPA despite explaining them to that I was now Mr Safety_Helmut.

S_H :ok:

[VinRouge]

pay it off at £5 a month, with inflation at it is, 1600 quid will get you a loaf of bread in 5 years anyway :}

[No idea]

Admin Blunty is right - however, you could push your luck and allow them to keep contacting you so they have to take the case to the small claims court to recouop the money - chances are they will let it go. If not, plead poverty and pay a couple of £'s each month