Feel sick - just found out have been overpaid

[steben]

Does anyone have any exp of this and can help me or share what they did if it happened to them? Also posted in Employment issues

Found out this morning that I have been paid full time when I should only have been paid for 4 days a week since I went back to work in November. We get electronic payslips and to be honest I never look and just assumed it was right as mney goes into joint account and I rarely look at our statements and DH does it all. I know I have to pay it back but my ointract here ends in 3 months - will they want it all back by then? Just worked it out and will probably be about £4k - feel sick - have no idea what DH will say as he will probably blame me. I feel so stupid.

I was over paid ( over two years) and as I'm on mat leave I have 18m to pay it back (about 5k). I'm annoyed because I was checking but I kept getting paid wrongly and it kept being adjusted til I lost track.

Have your work found out and asked for the money back. If o what have they said about repayments?

Where I used to work any overpayments, the repayment of them was negotiable. When I was on sick leave when pg they paid me full pay for eight months when it should have been six. I had no idea so owed them about 3k. My lovely line manager said I didn't have to pay it back as it wasn't my fault so I never did. I'd already paid my overtime back that they'd wrongly paid me and I'd rung them up and pointed out the mistake. So they said as I'd been honest in the past I could keep the second overpayment.

I think legally you don't have to pay any overpayments back, I know our company has done a couple of stupid overpayments and we were not able to get the money back.

You do legally have to pay it back if you knew you were being over paid. If you dropped a day and were still getting the same money then hard not to realise that they had over paid and they may take it further for you not telling them.

Oh I think it is my fault def - however i think my return to work has been mishandled and whilst I am fully prepared to pay it back I am def going to be appeal. Was going through it with line manager and basically my previous line manager didnt do any of the things she should have done properly. From the looks of it i can decide a payment plan so at least it wont be a lump sum which is something. Thanks for the comments.

Push for a payment plan. As far as Im aware they cannot force you into a one off lump sum payment, so think carefully as to which way will suit you best.

Similar happened to me. I stopped working 14.1.11 and they then went ahead and paid me for that month £1600!! Now at the time I'd just had a truly horrendous house move and was also suffering no broadband, no internet, no email, no home phone line and my mobile was in for repair and the spare I was using was totally totally rubbish and I couldn't ever get a signal! so only way of checking bank acc was the hole in the wall which only gives a balance of course so I had no idea I'd been overpaid.

They then wrote to me and said hey you owe us this much. I said well, your mistake not mine, can't pay that all back at once. So they wrote again asking for the full amount - so i went to the post office and got a postal order for £10 and sent it to them and said here's my first payment, if you want the rest please contact me with your suggestions for a repayment plan for the remaining amount which I CANNOT pay back in one go. Haven't heard a peep from them since!

Offer them a plan for staged repayments that won't knock your income and expenditure for six! Don't just pay it up in one go, it wasn't your error.

Hi steben

This must have been a shock for you but unfortunately your employer does have the right to get their money back. I have had similar cases before (I work in HR) and in all cases we agreed a sensible and affordable repayment plan. Suggest you work out what you can afford to pay back per month and ask your employer to deduct from payroll each month. It's a bit easier to stomach if the money doesn't go into your account in the first place each month!

If you have spent the money and did not realise you were overpaid, I think an ET would rule you would not have to pay it back. I don't think they can make a deduction and leave you below NMW. And, I think if they take it monthly it can only be a certain %, I think it might be 10%. I would contact your trade union if I were you. Good luck!