Complaints against officers

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Staff being chased for money including with threat of court.

File photo of a force control room

 

Met Police call handlers are being chased for money after long-running errors with the force’s payments.

Hundreds of people have been overpaid owing to mistakes mounting up for several years.

Brian Shaw, from the PCS union which represents staff, told Police Oracle: “It is causing a lot of angst and there are quite considerable sums involved.

“For example some were getting inner London allowance when they shoudn’t have been.

“They have been overpaid for quite a few years, that’s causing an issue because people have to repay it after they received it in good faith.”

He added: “In a lot of cases it’s not always 100 per cent clear they were being overpaid. There’s been very little contact from management about that in terms of coming to a solution. It’s causing a lot of issues for us. We’re trying to get the Met Police to be a little more considerate.”

There have been apparent threats of legal action against some staff too.

A force spokesman said the issues arise when staff working arrangements are changed and there are paperwork is “delayed or not completed”.

He added: “The Metropolitan Police Service seeks to recover all overpayments and is speaking to those affected to come to a timely and mutually agreeable position in relation to repayment.

“While the Met tries to adopt a flexible approach to repayments, i.e. payment by instalments, it would normally look to reclaim the money over the same period of time that the overpayments were made.

“Where this is not possible, the Met aims to work with individuals to formulate a solution for repayments. This includes offering financial advice on where an individual may make savings to cover repayments.

“County Court Judgements are very much considered a last resort and only where an individual has repeatedly failed to engage or agree a repayment process.”

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