Previous employer keeps sending me money!

[vx220]

Hi, I had a couple of weeks free after leaving one job and starting another, so I did two weeks with an agency.

Since then, I have had small, regular, weekly payments from the agency. When I contacted them, they initially said the first one was holiday back pay, not they're saying the payments are being made on behalf of HMRC?

HMRC are their usual uncontactable selves, the digital assistant doesn't understand English, and it's starting to panic my wife!

I've had suggestions to just put the money away, or buy Premium Bonds, which I'd be ok with, but for my wife's sake I need to get this sorted!

Any suggestions?

[alscar]

I suppose it’s possible for HMRC to return money in a few instalments if they charged too much tax for those 2 weeks and equally for holiday pay to not have been paid correctly albeit if you only worked there 2 weeks was that statement even correct from the agency ?
Perhaps email the agency setting out the payments received and asking them to confirm whether correct or not.
I certainly wouldn’t be spending the money yet though.

[JPC63]

How much are we talking here?

[StevieBee]

JPC63 said:

How much are we talking here?

And how long has this been going on for?

It's not as easy as you think to stop receiving payments. It's the payer that needs to intervene, not the payee.

The suggestion of putting the money to one side is the right one, along with keeping a record of all communication with the agency in regards to the matter. If this is HMRC related and they have made an error, they will write to you and normally give you the option of paying the money back to them or accepting an adjusted tax code. There's a statute of limitation that applies to (seven years IIRC) after which you have no liability.

[Countdown]

vx220 said:

Hi, I had a couple of weeks free after leaving one job and starting another, so I did two weeks with an agency.

Since then, I have had small, regular, weekly payments from the agency. When I contacted them, they initially said the first one was holiday back pay, not they're saying the payments are being made on behalf of HMRC?

HMRC are their usual uncontactable selves, the digital assistant doesn't understand English, and it's starting to panic my wife!

I've had suggestions to just put the money away, or buy Premium Bonds, which I'd be ok with, but for my wife's sake I need to get this sorted!

Any suggestions?

Are you getting a payslip or any kind of remittance? I would have thought that might shed some light on the situation.

if not the only thing you can do is to put the money to one side. Without a payslip you have no idea what they relate to so impossible for you to remdy.

[vx220]

Thanks all. After a whole afternoon on the phone, I have got a little further with it. It seems the agency have messed up my tax code (not that they're admitting it)

I've had some eye-opening experience with HMRC's digital assistant, it kept asking me to use fewer words to describe my issue, got down to one word (several different tries) and even then it couldn't help!

[OverHonda]

This brings back memories. I kept getting small payments several months after leaving a former employer. Dug a bit, and found out that they were expense payments intended for a current employee who had the same forename and surname as me.

I made them write and ask for repayment, which I sent to them by cheque. After deducting £50. They were a large loss making Scottish Financial institution...

[JPC63]

Reminds me when i used to receive contact lenses from vision express. As i work overseas i would come home to a new box every now and again, called first, made a visit, then another... went on for years and they wouldn't even take them back - not even in my prescription. Devil of a job to get them to stop!