PAYE is overpaid

[RamsayBoltonsConscience]

Hi
I got paid yesterday and foolishly didn't check my wage slip (I am a teacher). When I got home and checked my bank account I had been underpaid by £1200. I managed to get in contact with one of our payroll people and I have paid £1908 to PAYE rather than the £541.40 that it normally is.
What the hell do I do now? I know that I've got to get in touch with HMRC but why would this have happened? I don't have any other forms of income, there's no other earnings coming in. I had a promotion to deputy head in April and a small pay rise which should have been in this month's wages and back dated for June but that's it.
I'll have to go in and get my wage slip which is currently sitting in my pigeon hole before I contact them but does anyone have any idea why this may have happened and, more importantly, when the hell I would be able to get my money back?

Isn't it your payroll folk who need to sort it out for you?

chase your payroll dept, and contact you bank explaining what's happened - they may give you a temporary overdraft.

Payroll have said that I have to talk to HMRC, they are not allowed to.

Sounds like your tax code has changed hence the increase in PAYE, and that's why payroll are saying talk to HMRC. Payroll aren't able to alter tax codes they just do whatever they tell them too!

Talk to hmrc. They are surprisingly helpful. When this happened to me I got the money back fairly quickly. It is them that will help not your work

Yes just ring HMRC. They can sort it and refund immediately now (you used to have to wait until the end of the tax year!)

Thanks bigsighall that's reassuring.
My tax code hasn't changed as far as I am aware. I am waiting for the tax office to open at 8 am!

Is it the same on your payslip?

I have to say HMRC are lovely and surprisingly helpful once you get through. They have refunded money same day and also talked me through how my payroll were incorrect.

Update:
Been on the phone to HMRC someone (!) at payroll put me on an emergency tax code hence the massive PAYE. Work have to sort it out by running an one-off payroll for me with the correct tax code but I should be able to get it sorted this week!

Ah, I had something like this once. In my case my parish had been backdated 4 months and the total I got in the pay packet was an amount that if it had been repeated every month would have put me significantly into the higher rate tax band. At the end of the tax year hmrc worked out that I had overpaid and I got a refund but in my case I wasn't relying on the extra to make ends meet. If you multiply the gross pre-tax amount by 12, is it more than £45,000 or whatever the boundary is these days, and would £1908 be the normal paye if you earned that much?