Overpaid by Umbrella company

phgr79

HI, not sure where to put this so feel free to move it.

I work as a contractor through an umbrella company.
they paid me today, but i have notice they've paid me twice.
now I know the honest thing to do would be to call them and tell them, the question is however what am I obliged to do, do i get to hold onto the money? what is legal or illeagal in this sort of circumstance?.

tinkerbell84

of course you don't get to keep the money.

do the honest thing - they can come after you otherwise.

ThreeNineThreeFive

You need to tell them otherwise you're committing a criminal offence under the Fraud Act.

dickoa

This happened to my oh, the company found out and he had to make an arrangement to pay back the money in installments!!!

Oggyoi

The other way to look at it is;
If they find out and approach you, do you think they will give you any more business ?
It is possible they have done this to all their contractors ( maybe it is a computer blip ) and it would reflect badly on those who didn't report it back.

What if you were the main contractor and you paid your subs twice then realised.
Would you give any more work to those who had kept the double payment ?

eileen_forward

This happened where I work too. The accountant was quick to notice and asked for a cheque for the extra payment. I paid him quickly as my thoughts were if the mistake had been the other way round and I had not been paid I would have kicked up an almighty fuss. Plus it was his first month and I felt sorry for him.