Overpayment - or not?

[payqueryadvice]

I will try to keep this brief. I have been employed by a public sector organisation for over twenty years. Unfortunately during this time I had one major illness that result in a long absence. During the absence I went on nil pay having exhausted my entitlement to sick pay. I was due to return to work when an allegation was made (I hadn't submitted sick notes) that ultimately I was able to prove this wasn't the case but whilst the investigation was ongoing the organisation chose to put me on full pay. At the time they said , and I have it recorded, that this was them showing their duty of care. Now several years later they are claiming it was an overpayment and seeking to recover it. I would like to dispute this (they knowingly paid me / made a conscious decision so fail to see how it can be an overpayment), I dont know what the legal situation is and wondered if anyone has been through anything similar? Thank you

This is certainly an odd situation. Firstly, your employer not receiving a sick note whilst on unpaid sickness absence shouldn’t trigger an ‘allegation’ or investigation like it was a misconduct issue. It should just trigger a quick phone call / email from payroll or HR to the employee querying the lack of sick note. If the sick notes had been lost by payroll, then the GP would have been able to issue a replacement to cover the period in question. Literally a couple of days to sort out.
There would be no need for an investigation. My guessing is, as they didn’t have / couldn’t locate the sick notes, payroll would possibly assumed you were back in work and paid you.
How much are we talking about here?

If they paid you the money in error they could claim it back. However, if they made a conscious decision to pay you in a situation where they were not required to do so, they cannot now change their minds and claim it back.

How many years ago? If more than 6 years any civil claim against you is likely to be time barred

Thank you it was 4 years ago. It wasn't an erroneous payment they consciously decided to pay me in a situation where they were not required to do so ( I could have been placed on nil pay) whilst they looked into the allegations (I can prove that)- for reasons unknown the investigation ended up taking nearly a year. The claim was that whilst I had been off ill (also for nearly a year) I hadn't submitted sick notes. They didn't present details of the allegation to me until after the investigation was completed. I was able to prove that it wasn't true and I had evidence I had submitted sick notes. All feels ridiculous but also utterly exhausting.

Just to clarify - You informed them that you were fit to return to work, they then told you that an allegation had been made against you that needed to be investigated?

You did not return to work while the investigation took place (almost a year) but were placed on full pay for the duration? You then returned to work when the matter was closed?

If the above is correct, it seems that you were suspended on full pay - not at all uncommon if an investigation needs to take place that it would be unsuitable for you to be in the office for. Do you have a letter stating this?

If you were not ill during this time, and they were aware of that, they cannot now claim that this period was part of your 'sickness'. They also cannot claim after the fact that they should have suspended you without pay.

This all seems very, very bizarre though. An investigation that would have taken one phonecall to your GP to resolve, one that certainly didn't warrant you being out of the office...taking a year to resolve? That would be a monumental case of corporate incompetence.

Unless there's more to this you aren't telling us, you have a very strong case here.