Overpaid holiday pay

[doihavetopayitback]

Due to a huge mistake by my previous line manager I was overpaid nearly £1000 by my employer last year.

She rang to tell me after an audit picked it up and I said I hadnt received payslip so hadnt had a chance to look at breakdown but was surprised at amount of pay.

My housing benefit was stopped because of the pay and I had to fight and undergo alot of stress to get a letter from HR detailing what I should have been paid. Eventually 3 months later my HB was paid but I nearly lost my home because of her mistake.

I have not received anything offical from my employer regarding paying it back and I verbally asked them to write it off and I would be in hardship to pay it back. Plus due to all the stress and upset I felt they should also consider writing it off. I had to make phone calls every other day to either my line manger, her line manager, HR or housing benefits. I may as well have been off sick and recieving sick pay as it had a terrible effect on my health.

I am now on an unpaid break from work and HR have said verbally they would ask for it to be paid back when I return/or resign (which is about 3yrs away minimum and I could extend this to 5 years and I am very tempted to do so) They would look at hardship when they request repayment. However my circumstance now are hardship and if they considered it now I think they would have to allow it...I think they are delaying so they are in a stronger position.

My question is what rights do I have? The only letter I have received is one detailing what I was paid in error and what I should have received. I think it says they will contact me shortly regarding repayment....and that was 6mths ago.

When I receive my P60 I expect the gross pay will include the overpaid amount and it will potentially mess up my tax credits (possibly an overpayment). All nil pay slips to date still show the pay to date to include the overpaid.

Flowerly/ribena/anyone....any advice??

PS name changed

If you have been overpaid then it will have to show on your payslip as you have had the money - if your tax credits are affected then that is not something that can be avoided.

As you are not being paid at the moment, they may feel the hardship route is pushing it - if you can afford to be for x years with no pay then you are not in financial hardship.

If they can show that you would have known about the overpayment, they can legally reclaim in. Only if there was an error in your contract or there was no way of knowing you had been overpaid would you win in court.

A few questions....

Why didn't you have payslips?

What do you mean returning is 3-5 years away?

I don't know a lot about tax credits, but unfortunately if they have been paid assuming you had £1000 less than they did, yes, you have been overpaid and I think you might have to pay back.

It's a difficult situation. Do you mind me asking why you didn't realise you had so much extra money? It sounds like things are tight, and it's a lot to not notice.

Payment by installments would ususally take account of your situation, so a few pounds a month if necessary. I know that's not an attractive prospect, but at least a lump sum is unlikely.

I am claiming Income Support (Am a lone parent) and am on unpaid career break from work. That is why I would be in financial hardship to pay it back right now. When/If I return I would still struggle to make repayments.

I didnt receive payslips as you ahve to access payslips online. Obviously not in work to do this. It is only when I rang and requested they sent me paper ones could I see a breakdown.

My line manager basically awarded me more than a years leave. She did the sums wrong...in fact she didnt even use the right formula to get it wrong!

When she recalculated it after being told of her error she still calculated it wrong. It took me hours of my time and effort to obtain the official guidance and do a proper calculation which they accepted as correct!

From experience my HR commonly dont chase Overpayments for some time. One guy was receiving payments a year after he left. He put it to one side and kept notifing HR. They did nothing until 12mths had passed and then threaten debt collectors.

What I meant by tax credits is if P60 shows over paid figure and it means I have been overpaid and I then have to pay work back the money I will have be penalised twice.

Thanks. So you did get payslips but couldn't access them? Does that have to be done from a work computer? If not, I think it's hard to say you had no access, as they weren't to know you didn't either have a computer or weren't able to go to an internet cafe. I take your point that it won't have been a priority though.

How come you didn't notice the extra money?

Are you on a 3-5 year unpaid break? Is that what you mean?

I realised immediately...hence why I asked work for a payslip.

Still meant my housing benefit was stopped for 3 mths. Used the overpayment to pay my rent. Had no other choice.

Oh, poor you. Sorry to keep hassling, but what about the 3-5 year bit? I think that's potentially quite important practially speaking.

Payslips can only be accessed from a work computer.

3 years left on career break. Allowed 5 years max. Think Im going to ask for an extension. I dont EVER weant to go back but need to think long term about having a safety net to return to.

Overpaid End Sept 09. Have never recieved any offical notification. Am thinking if I go the full 5 years I could say it was statue barred in Sept 15?!

Still not had my final report done. Will be owed performance bonus pro rate.Newly assigned line manager has never written and I believe my job has be reassigned to a different command. All in all you can see why I dont feel I should pay it back cos of all the stress work have caused me.

Excuse typos...trying to try with a wrist support for first time!

I don't know much about the statute of limitations on debt, I do know that it's 6 years during which you must not have acknowledged the debt, made any payments or had a judgment made against you.

I think, practically, you may find that they never get around to chasing this given that you're out of the picture for so long. However, they do have a track record of doing so.

Short of the statute of limitations (you'd need advise from someone else on that), I can't think of any way you can totally stop them reclaiming. More obligations and stress sadly don't have any legal weight on this type of thing.

Poor you though. Sounds an awfully stressful situation.

Thanks Ribena. I know they will probably only chase as soon as HR system has a end date input for my career break or I resign.

I wont be acknowledging debt if they write now. I am also planning on making extensive notes as to what happened in case this comes up in years time.

Will wait and see what happens with P60 and tax credits.

At the end of the day they can only have back what I can reasonably afford to repay.