Work overpaid me by 20k, can’t pay back

[WhatsMyUsername89]

My work has overpaid me by £20,000.

I recieved a 5k bonus. Then for the next 4 months I got the 5k every month.

I rang my boss after I realised & she said I need to contact HR. Called HR, they said put it in an email.

Emailed HR saying think I’ve been overpaid let me know exact amount and how to pay it back. I CC’ed my manager

I also called another manager and she said the same thing as my manager and told me to email it.

I travel a lot for work, and when I saw our HR member in Singapore I did say “have you looked at my pay issue.” She said she’ll get back to me.

I’ve heard nothing. It’s been 10 months.

what do I do? They haven’t asked for it back. It’s just sat in a separate account, I haven’t spent it.

Wondering if someone is trying to hide it to not admit their mistake? Potentially thinking could it be picked up at end of financial year?

Not at all. It has gone through the payroll. At the moment the funds are the OP’s until the payroll is reversed (they currently are liable for tax and NI on the amount) and redone with the correct amount. It would only become a problem if it was not paid back when asked.

I know someone who went to crown court for theft for keeping an overpayment from work. It was for a lot more money than in your case op. They were found not guilty and never paid back a penny!

Many years ago I was overpaid for a temporary job. They sent me a weirdly worded letter, that didn't exactly ask for the money back, just asked if I had received any advanced payments. Made me think they weren't allowed to ask for the money back.

I did pay it back. .. it was a lot less than the amounts in this case, about £130.

Same thing happened to me working for an agency. I was paid for three consecutive months after working only one month.
I notified them of the mistake each month but never got a response.
I put it into my mortgage account ( which overpayments could be withdrawn from) and waited for them to requested it back. They never asked so it became my most lucrative employment. 4 weeks work paid my mortgage for a year!
If you have notified them and have a record of it that's a you xan do until HR on payroll issue you with account instructions. Put the money somewhere where is can be withdrawn and returned but make it work for you in the meantime.

I would not leave this and hope it will go away. It won't. You need to really push it and speak to whoever in pay, HR. Anyone. Keep creeping up the line. Having this ignored or pushed over the fence by colleagues, managers doesn't seem good at all. I would watch your back. Nobody gets overpaid by 5,000 for months on end and then nothing happens. You need to shout very loudly.

Is it definitely not for you?
And they forgot to mention it?

So you can pay it back if they ask for it as it's sitting in a bank account

Perhaps I'm just naieve or have the makings of a thief but why is it so imperative for the OP to get someone to take the money back? Surely if they ask for it by all means give it back but why should she move heaven and earth? I say that knowing by now I'd have a newly installed kitchen and possibly a couple of destination holidays planned.

If HR is being useless, I suggest trying the finance department….

@WhatsMyUsername89 premium bonds until you have ti pay it back is a great idea!

I'd stick it in the premium bonds and keep trying to contact people. Make sure you've got a paper trail. At least this way if it takes months for them to get round to actually coming back to you, you might win in the mean time x

I don't have any advice, but where do you work, because I could really use an extra £20k....

Honestly people get so over excited about stuff on here it’s ridiculous.

She’s tried more than once. Balls in their court. They ask for it back, she produces the money.

IF op was daft enough to spend it, THEN there’s a problem.

A similar thing happened to me, years ago. Less money though!

I flagged it up, got an email response from payroll saying they would sort it. They never did, and there was an email trail to prove that I had raised it, so I wasn’t bothered.

As PP have said, it will be a right pain sorting out tax, NI, pensions. They might just prefer to leave it be.

I’ve also been on the receiving end of over payments. For me it was 6 months of receiving car allowance when I also had a company car. I was on Mat leave when the car arrived, had taken the allowance prior to that. I emailed HR every month and still it continued. I raised it a couple more times after mat leave ended and then left it at that. I was made redundant a year later, and the money was never asked to be repaid. Some companies are either inept or just write it off I think if it’s (to them) small sums.

Do you have any access to the work bank account details? E.g. On work invoices?

I wonder if you could state to them that this matter has been unresolved for 10 months, and unless you receive satisfactory resolution before x date prior to the end of the tax year, you will pay it into those account details on x date.

I was overpaid by a former employer. I contacted them several times to tell them and got no response and then gave up but kept the money segregated.

Then out of the blue 2 years later they contacted me threatening legal action and the GMC (I’m a doctor) for dishonesty. I went straight to the “head of people” with my email chain showing I’d tried repeatedly to bring it to their attention and telling them what a shitty way it was to treat people.

I got an apology and an assurance they would look at their processes.

then I heard they did it to one of my friends 18months later.

I had similar in a previous role (nowhere near as much money though).

It’s amazing how hard it can be to pay money back to an organisation. I had to really work hard to get them to take it back. Then somehow I ended up getting a telling off from the payroll lady on the phone as if the whole thing was my fault. Bizarre.

CEO got back to me. Currently working out for tax purposes if it would be better to take an amount out of my wage, or whether to pay back what I have & they seek the rest through HMRC. CEO very pleased with my honesty and has requested an early one year review (where we are given a pay rise!) so alls well that ends well.

think I may have got HR in trouble though.

That's good news OP. Just shows, honesty is always the best policy, as my DM always says.

What is in your payslips? That's the first thing to look at.

If your payslips reflect your true gross pay then contact your chief finance officer directly and ask for bank details to pay the excess back.

If your payslips show excess gross pay that is harder to fix but they must put it right by March payroll.

You need to speak to director level people as the ones below are obviously inept

Good news! And frankly HR deserve to get into trouble.

I've been overpaid once, HR called me up the next day very apologetic and said the money would be deducted from my wages the following month. Funnily enough when they underpaid me nobody noticed and then they split the repayment across several months 🤔

You have until the end of the following tax year to amend your income figures, so don't worry about HMRC. Try and get an inspector to talk to and they will tell you what you need to do - just don't fret. HMRC can go back years and are used to dealing with idiots on payroll.

I was once paid £70k in my pay check by accident! It messed up my tax code and my tax free childcare was taken away as a result. Company didn't seem bothered as it was an overpayment, not an underpayment. I complained about the impact it had on my tax and was suddenly taken seriously. Took ages to rectify!