Overpaid wages- repayment

[Imagineit]

Hi,

Teacher here. I was paid a full time wage last month instead of part time by the city council.I reported it straight away and have agreed to just pay back next month in a lump sum.

I have syphoned off the amount above my normal pay, ready for this coming month but I'm concerned I'm going to lose out here as the gross amount they intend to recover is £1,386.80, but the actual amount that was above and beyond my normal pay was £782. I know this is gross but I feel like I'm going to lose money through no fault of my own.

They took extra money into pension last month at a higher rate which I'm worried they expect me to 'take on the chin'. Will they try to balance this out? And if not do I have grounds to try to claim more money back from them?

They have to make an adjustment with payroll. That way they can fix tax/ NI/ pension. Often companies are lazy and don't want to do that so you need to push for it.

They are doing it the correct way by recovering the gross amount. Your payslip should show the recovery amount and you should pay less tax, NI & pension. This way over the year you pay the correct amount.

I've had my new wage, and they've deducted the overpayment but it means I'm £115 short (on what I'd normally receive over the two months had they not messed this up)

I've contacted them to ask them to resolve this but not sure what else I can do?

If it’s to do with the pension deduction being increased, certainly where I work this can be refunded by the pension provider (via HR).
Don’t stop contacting HR until you get answers.

Surely the best thing for them to do would be to reissue a correct wage slip with all the right amounts for tax, pension and NI based on your PT salary and for them to notify your pension provider and HMRC of the error, so the amounts add up?

Then you either send them the difference back, or they pay your November salary 'short' by this amount.

But it's public sector payroll, which usually means that if there's an illogical and wrong way to do something, they'll find it and do that.

@BarbaraofSeville they have done it the correct way which is to go back to the previous month made the correct entries to change working hours. Then run payroll which recovers the gross overpayment and then works out tax and NI based on two factors, YTD and this months earnings after the recovery.

FYI public sector payrolls are required to be compliant with HMRC and are audited to ensure compliance. The process used is the professional way to deal with this type of situation.

@Imagineit @BarbaraofSeville has a good point. It may also be NI, in both cases check with payroll.

You may also find, depending on the amount of overpayment, you get a small tax rebate next month. This is because the tax allowances are proportioned out over the year and each month a check is done against YTD (Year to date) earnings.

Hi again,

So I spoke to payroll today and they have basically said that the loss is down to the national insurance and tax which would eventually come back to me overtime. This doesn't help the £115 hole in my pocket this month. They didn't offer any solutions apart from giving me the email address of someone who 'might be able to explain it better' (I had actually already emailed this address on Wednesday about the problem and they still haven't replied)

Payroll lady seemed disinterested and told me they were more busy with people who hadn't received any pay into their accounts at all this month.

So now I feel stuck and unsure what on earth to do next?

The tax will, the NI won’t. If you overpay NI, you’ll need to claim back the overpaid amount from HMRC yourself

I am sorry @Imagineit but if payroll are worried about people they haven’t paid to be fair they are in a worse situation than you.

I know that doesn’t help you but they are right to prioritise those who have had no pay.

There is a limited amount payroll can do. I appreciate it’s a significant amount of money

@Fiddledeedeeee and @Residentnumber1 have advised you how to reclaim the pension and NI overpayments. I know it’s unfair you have to do this, but you are the one with the vested interest in getting the money back.