My new employers are nuts but it's going to be me that gets in trouble.

[SolidGoldBrass]

I started a new job in the summer, for a large public sector organisation (I really don't want to say which one). The job is a part time/variable hours thing and I am paid an hourly rate. The first payment I got was way, way more than I expected, so I phoned the person who is technically my manager and said, look, I've been overpaid, how do I pay it back? And how much, exactly, do I need to pay back (I had a rough idea of how much I should have been paid, but not an exact one).

Nothing happened. About three weeks later the manager was on site when I was doing some work and I found a quiet moment and said, by the way they have not asked for the money back yet. The manager said emails would be sent, etc, it would be sorted out. Still nothing happened. I have dipped into the money a bit because it was there. And then I had to submit the next timesheet, so I posted it off and put a letter in to say: You over paid me, I haven't heard anything about fixing this, do you want to consider it a great big advance and not pay me again till next year, or what>

Nothing happened, no phone calls or emails or letters. And I checked my bank balance this morning and they have overpaid, massively, again.

It's nice to have a big chunk of money in the bank, obviously, but also it's obviously going to need paying back and given my usual poverty and number of people chasing me fo0r money it's not actually that good to have a chunk of money sitting in the bank, which doesn't really actually belong to me.

Any advice?>

Are they perhaps paying you a before tax amount and expecting you to sort out your own tax etc?

Put the overpayment amount you have calculated into a separate account and do not touch it! Continue to communicate in writing with your manager - keep copies of everything sent. Have you had a payslip? Are you getting holiday pay? Expenses?

You need to not spend the excess. They will (almost certainly) claim it back sometime soon. Agree keep all records of communications.

This happened to me once as a student - had a minimum wage 16hr contract and they had inputted my data as a 16k annual salary. Big shock on my first payday (and a big test of my honesty) but I contacted payroll to correct the mistake and sent them a cheque recorded delovery for the difference.

They will in time either want the excess back or not pay you until you have earned what you have already been paid. I've seen cases like this before. They are just slow to react.

I agree with pp. place all the extra money in another account. Perhaps an instant access ISA which is tax free (up to around £7,000 I think) and has a good interest rate - at least you can make a few pounds while they work out what has happened and fix it. They won't ask for any interest as its their error.
Natwest and Nationwide both have these. Make sure it is an instant access ISA or you won't be able to get the money when you need to without loosing the interest.

I think it sounds like they haven't got your tax Code. When this has happened to me they have just paid me the normal amount each month thereafter and then, in the following tax year, my tax code from HMRC has allowed for the repayment.

Did you give then your P60 from your precious place?

are you sure they're not considering you a contractor and expecting you to pay your own tax at the end of the year via an accountant etc?

Speak to Payroll.
I work in a large public sector organisation, and my manager knows nothing about pay issues.

Did you have a job before this one? If not, you've got some unused personal allowance that would artificially boost your first months payslips.

On your payslip is usually the info about hours, rate, tax etc. and there is usually a number for the people to speak to about your pay. check the figures and call them up.

You need to contact HR or preferably payroll directly. Your manager is unlikely to have any clue about how much you've been paid or why.

Speak to payroll. Your manager will have to do that anyway to sort it out. And don't spend any of the excess money until you've got an answer out of payroll.

When this has happened to me / DH before, what payroll have done is to claw back the excess pay from the next payslip, meaning a month with no money paid or a drastically reduced amount of pay.

Agree with everyone else, you need to talk directly to payroll. Your manager won't have all the detail needed to sort it out.

I'd make sure there was an email trail to prove you are trying to return it. Also open up the highest interest account you can and separate it from your own cash. Don't dip into the money

They should have your letter by now. Call them on Monday and get this sorted out before you end up spending it - well, paying bills with it! Bloody annoying though.

THis happened to me once when I was on mat leave, and work paid me a figure for stat mat pay that was more than I expected but I thought I had maybe got it wrong, hence wee spending spree thinking "this ain't so bad!"

Cue HR phoning me to advise their mistake and that they would underpay me the next months stat pay to balance it out. Horrid next month with next to nothing and not a lot to fallback on.

Echo what others have said about moving it to a temp account for now until you get to the bottom of it. And def don't spend it!

I agree with separating the overpayment into another account and insisting on speaking to the senior manager, head of payroll or HR. Keep a record of any emails and letters you send.

Oh, and don't make any arrangements about making up the money that aren't agreed with payroll.

I remember a colleague telling me once that a similar thing had happened with one of his first payslips when he was a lad. He asked his manager for advice, and somehow the suggestion came up that he should do unpaid overtime to make up the extra money paid, and that way he wouldn't have to worry about returning money or being paid less next month. So, he did the overtime. A few months later payroll realised they'd overpaid him, and contacted him to say they were taking the money back. Colleague tried to explain the unpaid overtime thing, payroll refused to accept this and insisted they needed the money back so their books balanced. The manager just shrugged his shoulders and said there was nothing he could do. Payroll took their money and colleague had ended up giving this company the best part of a months work for free (in unpaid overtime).

Agree with separating money. I got overpaid once but as it was their fault (computer error in new job) they agreed to £100 per month repayment. Didnt realise it was an overpayment till x amount of time gone past as pay slips showed that amount. Over time you be surprised how quickly it builds up. Its not your money so keeping it separate is a very good idea.

I work for an agency. I hand my time sheet to my manager at my place of work for him to fax it off and I think he must add a few extra hours onto it. I don't mind; it's a massive company and they can afford it.
I also have had my child and tax credits almost double; I had actually overestimated my last years earnings ( no P45) .

I would look at your payslip and se how many hours you have been paid and at what hourly rate. Perhaps you are on a higher scale than the job was advertised IYSWIM.

Do you have an expenses allowance? a lot of workers can claim for subsistence and fuel.

Make sure you keep a record of all the times you've told them about this to try to sort it out. If it was a face to face or phone conversation, make a note of who you spoke to, when, and what was said. Might also be worth getting some expert advice about what the law is here - if they've paid you too much and haven't sorted it out despite your repeated attempts to resolve it, there must come a point where the money becomes yours ... I mean, it would be ridiculous if they could claim the money back in 10 years, say. Maybe ask advice on a finance forum here, as a start?

I was paid full pay throughout my maternity leave, since my maternity pay was decreasing monthly by X% it became impossible to work out what I should have been paid each month because each month was different. I phoned payroll every month and they told me they were sorting it out.

In the end I took what I needed each month and moved the rest to a separate account, infuriating when I was so skint and off work and the temptation nearly killed me. They eventually wrote to me and asked for a cheque to cover the amount - it was thousands. I had most of it but not the rest so I had to make an arrangement to pay instalments, it was actually very embarrassing because I didn't have to funds to just give it back and the head of payroll told me I "shouldn't have spent was wasn't mine". It was awful. Honestly, write them a cheque each month for the excess and budget for it, if they don't cash it you'll have a record.

You need to speak to, and then email, the pay department.

In a large public sector organisation, there's bound to be some sort of intranet, and the staff regulations and internal phone list should be there, and between those two documents you should find the right point of contact.

Mention (for the completeness of the record) the dates you spoke to your manager. It's a bit shoddy they did not point you in the right direction, but this is something you need to sort out yourself. Including the absent payslips. It is so unlikely that one hasn't been produced, and you need to know where they are going as they are not reaching you.

Chances are HR and Payroll etc. are all outsourced and they are rubbish!!! I'm fairly sure if you have been overpaid that you can make arrangements to repay it over a period of time - you could use it as an interest free loan....

I also agree that you need to check that they are not treating you as being self-employed. Does your payslip show any deductions for income tax and NI?

If you were on an emergency tax code, I think the most likely one would be a 0T tax code which provides for no form of personal allowance so you would expect to get less pay, usually (unless your personal allowance had been used up anyway)

I would work our roughly what the overpayment is and put it in a separate account as you could need it fir tax in any event. My DH is self employed and very good at using his tax money for short term loans etc (eg if we need to buy a car) but he knows exactly what amounts he needs to earn in excess to make sure it is paid back in time for his tax bill and can easily get extra work if needs be to do that. I'm not sure I would be able to do the sums or be as disciplined so I wouldn't personally use the money if it does need to be accounted for tax.

If you do need to pay your own tax and want to make payments through out the year then you can do by asking HMRC if you can make payments to account. They will reimburse you if there are any over payments and pay interest - I think about 3%.