Over payment of salary - repayment rights

[Moggymorn]

Apparently over the last 6 months I have been accidentally overpaid £220. The thing is I'm going on a debt management plan, besides certain amounts I have allocated myself for food, fuel and absolute necessities every penny goes to my creditors. I'm pregnant and working reduced hours. Anything more than £20 a month will be completely impossible for me without not meeting my debt repayment amount and paying less, which isn't an option as I've just started it. Are my employers obligated to accept the £20 a month or will they demand the whole thing? I thought I'd finally gotten myself out of financial trouble with the DMP and reading this fucking letter this morning has broken me. Thought I was past the sitting on the sofa crying because I'm fucked financially... nope.

You'll have to ask them. When will you be going on Mat leave and what pay will you get? That might affect their stance on it, given that you are definitely going to be absent from work for a long period that starts within the 11 months you want to repay it over.

Explain the situation to them and see what they say.

It’s such a small amount in the overall scheme of things (not to you I know, but to your employers) that I cannot think they wouldn’t accept it in instalments. It’s not worth taking any action for that amount and they’ll rather get it back than not.

You can look into this, I had an overpayment whilst on matenity leave and the company were not able to take it out of my maternity pay . I paid it back over a couple of months when I retuned to work a year later.

They could in theory take it out of your next salary if they wanted to.

They cannot take it out of statutory maternity pay

It’s an overpayment of £36 and pennies. I think it’s be reasonable in the circumstances to have an open conversation with whoever sent the letter and agree repayment terms over none or 12 months, so the payments are manageable for you.

Don’t worry about it. It’s not a lot to have been overpaid in the grand scheme of things, but I do appreciate it’s one more thing to deal with when it was potentially avoidable.

Nine or 12 months. Should have previewed before sending!

Check your contract carefully as if they have a clause in the contract they can quite legally deduct the over payment from your pay check in one go. Though there are rules governing this which i do not know the exact details.

The main thing is check your contract carefully as in my old field of work it was a common clause.

Don’t you have the same time to pay it back as the length of time they were overpaying?