How do I sort this out?

[myavocadoisgrowing]

I work part time. 16 hrs a week so as you can imagine my monthly take home isn’t a huge amount. Less than £1k.

I’ve been off sick and my company pays full salary for sick for up to 6 months.

God knows why but they have paid me my normal salary (which is correct) AND SSP.

SSP is over £500. They have said ‘oops, our mistake, you can pay it back over a few months’

Now I’m happy to pay it back BUT… I actually only got £200 of it, the rest went in (erroneous) NI, pension and tax.

Surely they can’t make me pay back the £500+ when a) it was their mistake and b) I haven’t actually HAD the £500?

I would imagine you would eventually get a tax rebate?

What they should do is recover it out of your gross salary then apply tax, NI etc so you end up paying less. Aim to repay by 31/03/2026 I.e. within this tax year and all the balances for the year should be correct.

Note: normally when an employer pays full pay you get a SSP payment and an equivalent SSP deduction. This makes it clear you have received SSP and your pay tops it up to your full salary.

Thanks. I’ve never been off sick long enough to be eligible before but that is what I would expect to happen, I noticed it because my salary was way too high for a month. But I’ve had issues with payroll before so I just know it’s going to be a nightmare. But I will stand my ground, they’ve done it twice now despite being told it was wrong and they said they’d correct it.

Definitely insist they take it out of gross salary by 31/03/2025. If they don’t then consider an informal grievance - I know that sounds aggressive but it’s about their responsibility to pay you accurately.