Would you report a long-term payroll overpayment at work?

[Hashtagworthit]

Soooooo, asking for a friend. If you worked for a large business (international) and have been overpaid £1k every month for the last 10 months would you confess or keep stum?

Yes I would tell them because presumably they’ll have to pay it back at some point?

Tell them. It’ll be found out eventually, and they are entitled to it back but they will also then look at you (sorry, your friend) as someone who is now very untrustworthy and it could cost you your job.

It will come to light eventually.
Get it sorted as soon as possible but be ready for questions about why you've left it so long, and a proposal for how its going to be paid back

Of course you should
You wouldn't accept being paid a grand less a month
Integrity is pretty important in the workplace

I told them in the situation - not quite so much money though . They were meant to take it back at the same speed they overpaid - but then took it all back at once!

Something like this happened to a colleague and when it was discovered they had to pay it back. Because they’d already spent it they had to lose a couple of hours pay a day until it was paid back. They moaned to colleagues they were working for nothing but in truth technically they’d been paid in advance. I could be wrong but I believe it’s an employee’s responsibility to declare overpayment.

I would have told them immediately, before it got out of hand.

Why didn’t they report it straight away?

my contract changed last year and a mess up meant I was overpaid. I reported it immediately, it took a few months to get it sorted but I knew it would be figured out so reported it straight away.

That’s not even a marginal amount. It’s dishonesty really, you couldn’t possibly claim unknown unless you were on double figures

Yes. I had this after 2 months (thought was an issue with tax at first) had to repay, which I did in one go for ease but did get a little tax rebate in the end so that was nice!

Are you happy there?

I kind of think you'd have to leave either way really, as your credibility would be damaged after 10 months of extra pay?

I would leave and not say anything 😬, stick it to the man!

I’d stick it a savings account so I can repay via payroll.

I’d of reported that the first month I got it.

10 months? Geeez.

I was overpaid and rang them payday day. They are owed it back so better just deal with it immediately. But 10 months? Wow.

Can you pay them back in one go?

I understand. Yes I can pay it back and no I haven’t spent it. But if you flip it on its head why haven’t they found out in 10 months…

Because they’ve had a control failure.

I’d have told them 10 years ago because these things always get unearthed and they will want the money back. Hefty repayment plan heading your friends way!

We paid someone incorrectly because HR put the wrong salary on the new starter form. We now check new starter forms to contracts to avoid this happening again.

But OP, having started paying you the wrong amount, we would not identify this error until pay review time. The HR system would have your salary as X, give you the 3% pay rise or whatever and then when it came to putting into the payroll system we would notice then.

If you know you’re not owed this OP and you don’t tell them, it might actually be fraudulent to keep it.

I wouldn’t be as quick to fess up as everyone above. I’d think about the company and how many millions (or billions) the owners and big shareholders are raking in each year. And that might influence my decision.
But, it can’t go on forever probably so keep the extra in a savings account and make sure it’s there if they ever request it back. I believe they have 6 years to request.

Most payroll is automatic once it’s been set up. But I’m not really sure it matters why they haven’t noticed. Someone’s obviously made a mistake somewhere but if you don’t raise it you’re just making yourself look so untrustworthy.

You'd be properly in the crap for not having told us at all the places I've worked for. That's not £20 a month which could be a weird tax thingy.

Yes because it will be discovered on an audit eventually then the recipient would be considered dishonest

Just own up. It’s dishonest. It looks far better if you own up and the person who’ll get in trouble will be the payroll person and maybe you for not telling them earlier. Of course you’ll have to pay it back. The longer you leave it the worse it’ll be.

I had this sort of recently as I accepted a job in April and the actual salary was slightly less than was in the contract. Not sure if it was less than the advertised amount for the role. They were very apologetic, got me in to sign a new contract, it was their error though. They’ve already paid me for the month though.

If it’s been 10 months they’ll audit shortly for year end and they’ll realise and will want payment