They keep paying me

[NeverAloneNeverAgain]

Not sure if this is better in money or work so feel free to move if needed!

I changed jobs at the start of the year. Worked required notice, old employer gave references for new employer and also old HR liaised with new HR about end dates for continuous service. All good however.....

I was expecting about 8 days pay from old job due to leaving part way through month. They paid the full months wage. I emailed HR to inform them who advised they didn't know I'd left and to contact old manager. I emailed old manager with email trail to HR copied in who told me they'd submitted leaving forms and didn't know what else they could do. Several days of emails back and forth continued.

I then got paid again full wage in February. More emails and contacted union. Was assured it would be corrected and invoice raised so I could return overpayment. Great.

It now looks as though I'm getting paid again - pay date is 25th. Is there anyone else I can contact because this is getting ridiculous and I'm being hammered on tax for having a second job and it pushes me into the higher tax bracket because HMRC have me down as earning over £5000pm.

I never thought it would be this difficult to not get money I'm not entitled to!

Can you write to the M D or CEO or similar? Sounds like it needs escalation!

It's a Local Authority so I'm not sure who I would escalate to if I'm honest. Head of service perhaps? Surely it's coming out of someone's budget somewhere 🤔

Look on their website for the most senior person at the LA (employee, not politician) and write to him/her.

It’s a breach of proper financial governance, as well as a PITA for you, and needs sorting.

Is there a finance dept rather than HR you could contact?

But they need to adjust what they reclaim from you so that you're not out of pocket on deductions that you can't be reimbursed for (I've got a feeling NI is tricky in this kind of situation)

This happened to me and it was an absolute nightmare to fix.

It wasn’t just a case of transferring the money. I had to wait for the finance department to send an invoice, which took ages.

Of course, they wanted the full amount back, despite money taken off for tax, national insurance, pension contribution & student loan before it reached my bank.

The following financial year, it happened again.

I ended up out of pocket. I was young at the time. It was my first proper job. Tried contacting HMRC but got no joy.

Thank you for replies.

Initially they said they would re run it through HMRC with correct figures and raise an invoice so I (maybe wrongly) assumed tax, NI, pension and student loan would be accounted for. I've kept the money in a separate account so as soon as they tell me how much to pay back and how to do this I can it just doesn't seem to be this simple.

I'll Google for a senior person and forward the emails. Hopefully that will resolve it or at least flag it with someone who may be concerned about the budget!

Will tax bracket balance out once this is sorted?

They can't raise you an invoice, they need to put an amendment through the payroll system otherwisde the tax, NI, etc will be incorrect

This happened to me, also with a local authority. In the end I contacted my line manager, the head of service and payroll. It turns out my manager had completed the leavers form but not the payroll amendment paperwork. They issued an invoice for repayment of my net salary and the tax/NI got sorted out in my self assessment for the year in question. It’s an utter pain though.

This happened to me when I retired and it turned out no one had told me I was responsible for informing Finance that I was leaving. And yes, you have to repay.

Put this on a local community FB page referring to the local authority, it'll get sorted within the hour once the local residents get wind of it 😁

Similar happened to my brother, he went on an unpaid sabbatical for 12 months and his local authority employer kept paying him! Every month he'd email HR/Finance to let them know and nothing happened.

About 10 months in he got a threatening letter to say he'd been overpaid and he should have informed them...he'd kept copies of the emails luckily but they still got shirty with him and then it took about another 3 months for them to sort out the overpayment!

My advise would be to keep all copies of emails to prove you've tried to sort it out, put the money in a separate high interest account and just enjoy the interest until they want it back.

Isn't the public sector a shining example of financial management?

OP I totally understand your frustration and being hammered for tax is a nightmare, ditto trying to sort it all out with HMRC because someone in Numptytown Council can't do their job.

You shouldn't end up out of pocket for tax etc, it's ridiculous.

@NeverAloneNeverAgain you need to move really quickly on this because it’s the end of the tax year.

Email the CEO stating “grievance overpayment of salary “. Explain you are raising a grievance over the mismanagement of payroll. Tell them to stop this months payment, it can be done by manual intervention. Tell them that this is their error and that they must re-run your payroll (your record can be isolated) from Jan to March to correct all the payments and deductions before they do end of year payroll processes.

Remind them you are legally entitled to a correct payslips, P45 and P60 and that you will pursue any financial detriment you suffer due to their error, including charging for your time to resolve the matter.

She won't end up out of pocket, it will all work itself out but it might take time and it happening right before the last payroll of the year isn't great timing

It doesn't give much confidence in an organisation that can't manage a ridiculously simple task

Make sure you only give them back the actual cash you receive and are not left dealing with the impact of overpaid tax and NI and pension contributions which will be a nightmare to reclaim and take up way too much time. It's their cockup so they can take the financial hit.

Year ago, when we were teenagers, my friend applied for a job and was offered the job, had given all his details etc. but at the last minute, decided not to take the job.

They started paying him anyway. It was a huge organisation and nobody noticed that he never worked there.
Sorry, and this is not a good idea, nor is it any help to you, but he kept all the money.

After a few months he started to worry and was wondering how to get out of the situation and he called them to say that he ‘quit’ and they eventually stopped paying him.

That must be really stressful for you. At least you are honest!

Note all examples given are failures in LA. The same LA who are always complaining they don't get enough money. It seems they are pretty careless with the money they do get.