Overpaid by my employer, AIBU?

[EilaLila]

Last week, I saw I got overpaid for April. I recently reduced my hours but I was paid as if i was full time. I flagged it up and received a confusing response. They suggested I have to pay back the gross amount. I only got paid my usual net salary. I cannot afford to pay back more!

I had this recently and they said the same to me - needless to say I was pissed off at the idea of being out of pocket due to their error.

After a lot of prompting, payroll said they can ”roll back” the pay and rerun it to get the correct amounts. Then make that adjustment in my next wage pack. Therefore I was not a penny out of pocket.

They said it is time consuming so prefer not to do it but they could see my point too.

You absolutely don’t pay back the gross amount. Tell them to do one. They can easily sort it themselves with you repaying what you received!

They would have overpaid you the gross amount and you would have been taxed on it. So you only see the net amount in your pay.

They then need to show the gross amount being taken off your pay, and then the tax paid will also be reversed, if you are not on a week/month 1 tax code.

It may sound strange, but you will not loose out. As your tax paid is adjusted in real time based on what you have earned year to date.

Did you receive the change in hours in writing with your pro rated salary? If so I would send them that letter that outlines what you’re supposed to receive and tell them you’ll repay the difference. By repaying all of what they pay you will leave you with no remuneration, your remuneration is part of your terms and conditions of employment and so to pay all of that back doesn’t make sense, they’d be breaching their contract with you by expecting that. You only pay the difference, I.e what you were over paid. A reasonable employer would also ask for that to be paid in instalments if it was a large over payment.

Yes you pay back the gross amount, but only through your payroll wage slip, so relevant deductions are processed. Do not pay them back in cash.

Thanks all. I do have my reduced hours in writing.
I understand it might need to come out of my salary but I got confused. Obviously I have my net sum to pay back as it’s still in my bank account, jus no extra.