I've been overpaid by my employer, WWYD?

[Whattodowithoverpayment]

I work on a minimum-wage, zero-hours contract for a huge multinational company. I've just opened my latest payslip and they've overpaid me by around £750. I can see that whoever processed the payment has miscalculated the hours I worked last month. If the company was smaller I'd fess up, but they definitely won't miss £750. I'm flat broke and the money will mean so much to my family this Christmas. But I'm worried they'll find out and make me pay it back. What should I do?

You won’t be able to spend it because you will need to be able to give it back immediately if they ask for it, so I don’t see much point in keeping it.
A colleague of mine was overpaid for years in a way she couldn’t reasonably have picked up on (tax error, she assumed they knew better than her) and they refused instalments so she had to find 3 grand in less than a month. She looked into her rights but had none. So you may as well give it back now.

Thing is, if you keep it and spend it, what are you going to do if they realise and want it back given you’re flat broke?

Whack it in a high interest savings account until they ask for it back

I’d tell them and have the money set aside. You never know they might just say keep it.

That happened to me in a past job due to my role I was paid car allowance. I went on maternity leave and then even though my maternity pay was nil, thy were still
paying me car allowance. I called them up and asked whether I should still be paid it and was told no, I then said that I hadn’t spent it and how do I pay them back. They just told me to keep it.

You need to ring HR now and tell them. Put the £750 aside in a savings account so you don't spent it because likely what will happen is that they will want it back rather than trying to cut your next pay short.

I'm gobsmacked at people saying see if you can get away with it. You're not going to get away with it at all and being in debt to £750 is FAR worse than just giving it back now.

We wouldn't attempt to prosecute someone who didn't tell us about an overpayment if that magnitude, but it's not like they've messed up by £50 a month for 2 years or something you could plausibly have not noticed. So we wouldn't have much future trust in you.

You have to tell them - you can’t just keep money that’s not yours however much you talk yourself into being entitled to it .
When they realise the overpayment and realise you kept the money you will be showing them how dishonest you are - not a good look .

You have to tell them

longer term your honesty may pay off more than trying to keep it and getting in a mess

Is there such a thing these days?

Anyway OP, you have no idea if they will realise or not. The best thing to do so that you don't end up with an ulcer or sleepelss nights or stress is to call them today, and tell them. Probably what will happen is that in the next payrun they will take those hours off and readjust the tax for you. So don't go spending it all, think of it as a pre payment of January's pay.

I've heard of someone being sacked for not reporting that they had been overpaid. I wasn't involved, so don't know the details, but I think the company must have considered the employee to have lost trust in a role that required trust.

tell them…they may notice at any stage and take it from future wages so it won’t work in your favour!!

Don't guarantee they won't realise in weeks, months, years OP!

I was contacted by my ex-company saying they'd overpaid me 4, yes four, years previously. I was a temp with ad-hoc shifts, so a different pay every time. I asked for evidence of the calculations etc. It was only a few hundred £'s but I guess I could have ask for a payment plan if needed.

Spend it and say a direct debit came out. Oops. Then pay back slowly. Fuck them. It’s a reward from God for Xmas boost

I think, if you are on maternity leave, your benefits still continue. So they were probably correct to keep paying your car allowance. What if you were leasing the car? You wouldn't be able to cease payments while you're on maternity leave.

They will take it out of your wages at any given moment so it's best to tell them so it can be rectified in a manageable way.

Though if you think you can handle the possibility of losing your job or having it taken all in one go then don't bother say anything. I guess you could get away with it.

Could it be a Christmas bonus?

I received an unexpected £9,000 once from our expenses department (big multinational company). I contacted them, and they said "oops, that was meant for John Big-Cheese-But-Same-Surname-As-Yours". So I paid it back.

Two weeks later, the exact same sum arrives back in my account. I'm not entirely sure whether the bank bounced the refund, or whether the company made the same mistake twice. I called again, they said "oh, we'll look into it and get back to you." So I sat on the cash and waited for a call.

That was in 1990......still waiting......

I've had an accidental overpayment before, I got a call from finance the next day because they noticed. My company automatically claws it back out of your wages over several months rather than you having to pay it back, if they demand it is paid back straight away that can mean you end up out of pocket because of tax and NI so ask for it to be taken from next month's wages.

I once got overpaid £17,000. They didn't even notice (massive public sector employer), so I told them and put it in a high interest account until they got themselves together and made arrangements to get it back. I got a whole £30 of interest, so that was nice.

They'll always find out and you will be made to repay.

They will ask you to pay it back sooner or later…

This has happened to me twice and both times I’ve said nothing and both times it hasn’t been noticed by the employer either.

Their mistake; not my problem if they can’t do their job.

Tell them or you’ll be prosecuted and you’ll have to pay it back plus a fine or worse

Some posters can be so dramatic. Criminal charges 🤔

Chances are they will pick up on it at some point. So think about if you can afford to pay it back if you spend this now.

To be on the safe side, transfer it to a different account and then see what happens.

Theft (from Old English þeofð, cognate to thief) is the act of taking another person's property or services without that person's permission or consent with the intent to deprive the rightful owner of it.
people will make anything up on here, its not theft however, somewhere down the line you will have to give it back so its up to you whether you want to do it now or wait for them to realise.