{"id":373063,"date":"2025-08-25T19:21:35","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T19:21:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/373063\/"},"modified":"2025-08-25T19:21:35","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T19:21:35","slug":"in-one-day-a-sudden-decision-by-oldham-council-left-me-with-nothing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/373063\/","title":{"rendered":"‘In one day, a sudden decision by Oldham council left me with nothing’"},"content":{"rendered":"

A council error left her with \u00a30 in her account(Image: Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

Hannah was already finding it hard to cope. The Oldham Council employee, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, had been off work for three months while recovering from a serious road traffic accident.<\/p>\n

She was struggling with finances after a recent relationship breakdown, and was mourning the loss of her father.<\/p>\n

Then, two days before she was due to be paid by her employer, she received an email. Unbeknownst to Hannah, Oldham<\/a> Council had still been paying her full wage while she was on sick leave rehabilitating from her collision.<\/p>\n

She owed them \u00a34,700. This came as a huge shock to the 45-year-old.<\/p>\n

What came as an even bigger shock: later the same day, she received another email from the council stating they would be recovering some of the money with immediate effect. Her payslip for that month: \u00a30.<\/p>\n

\"'Hannah'‘Hannah’ was forced to visit a food bank as she had no money for food.(Image: Kenny Brown | Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

\u201cI had no money to buy any food,\u201d Hannah told the Local Democracy Reporting Service. \u201cOr to pay my priority bills.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hannah was left with nothing. She was forced to seek a referral to a voucher foodbank, unable to afford her groceries. She left her apartment in rent arrears and had to beg for time on many of her bills and debt commitments.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt dehumanizing,\u201d she said. \u201cIf someone has been on a wage, or on statutory sick pay, or even on benefits, then they\u2019re getting something each month. If they\u2019ve suddenly got zero, how are they going to manage?<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m obviously not saying I shouldn\u2019t have to pay the money back. But it wasn\u2019t my fault, it wasn\u2019t my error, and I do think they could have been more compassionate about the way they went about recovering the money.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the council, it was \u2018human error\u2019 on the local authority\u2019s side that led to the overpayment, and she \u2018should have been offered a payment plan\u2019 to pay the money back, as she was still entitled to monthly sick pay.<\/p>\n

The experience put a strain on Hannah’s mental health. (Image: Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

Hannah never thought twice about the amount she was receiving because she\u2019d submitted all her sick notes and documentation, and kept her employers regularly updated about her state.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was Oldham\u2019s own occupational health department who told me I wasn\u2019t fit to return to work,\u201d she added, still in disbelief.<\/p>\n

But the error took the Oldham employee, who has worked with those facing or experiencing homelessness for several years, to a dark place.<\/p>\n

Hannah said: \u201cI contemplated suicide. Because I was already struggling with my mental health. This just left me feeling like \u2018what is the point?\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m lucky I\u2019ve got a really supportive family, and if it wasn\u2019t for them, I might have ended my life that day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way I was treated was abhorrent. It just disregarded me as a human being. I\u2019m lucky to have my family as a safety net \u2013 but someone else might not have that. I don\u2019t want this to happen to anyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oldham council says Hannah should have been offered a repayment plan – but wasn’t. (Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

Hannah, who has worked since the age of 16, also claimed it was the first time she had felt \u2018unsupported and unsafe\u2019 due to the actions of an employer.<\/p>\n

She reached out to the LDRS after seeing a story about another error made by Oldham Council, which has seen councillors potentially overpaid by thousands.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt ironic. Because we\u2019re not even sure yet if they\u2019re going to have to pay it back. Meanwhile when it comes to employees\u2026,\u201d she trailed off.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt also makes you wonder. Because it\u2019s Oldham Council. They\u2019re the ones who are supposed to be responsible with public funds. If they can\u2019t get that right, then they need to be held accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AnAn Oldham Council spokesperson said ‘it’s not acceptable’. (Image: LDRS)<\/p>\n

A council spokesperson said: \u201cIn this case, human error meant that, unfortunately, Hannah got overpaid over a number of months. On the rare occasions when an error like this happens, even when it\u2019s not the employee\u2019s fault, they do need to pay it back, as it is public money they aren\u2019t entitled to.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe should have been offered a repayment plan, but wasn\u2019t. We are really sorry she wasn\u2019t offered time to pay the money back, and for the distress it subsequently caused. As soon as we were made aware of the situation, we reached out to her to make sure she had the appropriate support.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not acceptable that she didn\u2019t have the opportunity to pay the money back over time. Following her experience, we conducted an internal review and identified improvements to prevent this from happening again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A council error left her with \u00a30 in her account(Image: Manchester Evening News) Hannah was already finding it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373064,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,3374,393,58859,4884,2465,1286,14984,285,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-373063","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-employment","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-food-banks","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-manchester","14":"tag-oldham","15":"tag-oldham-council","16":"tag-politics","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115091032870454132","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}