Overpaid whilst off sick

foolishqueen

Evening Folks,

I hope this is the right forum to post my query, so here goes.

My girlfriend has been off sick from work since an operation in February, she is however no preparing to return to woek in 2 weeks. She spoke to her supervisor this evening, and it turns out that work have overpaid her by quite a bit since she was off sick.

The amounts total around £2500, of which £1300 is in wages and the rest SSP. Work seem to be implying that it is her fault and that she should have noticed.

I find this quite difficult to accept. Yes we checked her payslips each month, and could see the amount being paid decreasing plus there were netries for deductions due to sick leave.

What can be done about this? They have suggested a meeting this week to discuss it. My fear is they will want her to in effect work for "free" until it is all repaid. Plus thay have said that the 5 weeks holida she has acrued, they will want this all back to go towards the overpayment.

It seems clear there has been an internal mis-communication between the salaries department and the department my partner works for, or someone somewhere has made a mistake.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. One of the main reasons to return to work is for the money - things are tight as I am sure they are for a lot of people, and this has come as quite a blow.

Thanks.

LinasPilibaitisisbatman

I wouldnt worry too much about the holidays as they are entitled to reclaim this whilst someone is off sick anyway so if their willing to cancel the holidays in payment of the debt I would take it and bring it to a close

foolishqueen

Thanks for your reply. My partner only works part time, so to the total overpayment amounts to something like 25 weeks. Hence you can see why this is all so worrying.

SomeBozo

If you girlfriend had been underpaid during her absence and you just found out, how would you feel about that?

Would you be on here asking for advice on how to get the money back?

As long as the employer can show the overpayment, its not hers and needs to be paid back.

Since its significant, ask to pay it back in installments.

Bozo

foolishqueen

Bozo, neither I nor my girlfriend have an issue with paying the over payments back. What I was after was, for example, can her employee simply say, fine come back to work, but were not paying you for 6 months?

bunny999

They have to allow her time to pay it back - it was after all their mistake. She should make them an offer of a small amount per monrth. I once had an overpayment of about £960 which I paid back at £20 per month - it took about 4 years!

Savvy_Sue

It would be worth her looking at her Terms and Conditions, and doing her own sums.

For example, if her employer ONLY pays SSP while she is off sick, then it is reasonable for them to say that she should have noticed. Equally if they do full pay for X weeks then half pay, then SSP only but that didn't happen, she could have been expected to notice.

However it sounds as if they kept paying SSP beyond 6 months, when they should have stopped and told her to apply for Invalidity Benefit. I am not sure that it is 'reasonable' to expect Joe Public to know that SSP should only be paid for 6 months (even though many of us do!)

Thing is, she probably can't backdate a claim for Invalidity Benefit at this point, which means she'll be out of pocket if they make her pay it back.

So the SSP might be open to dispute, even if the 'other' pay isn't.

ACAS might be useful, also her union if she's in one.

Oh, and I don't think they can require her to work without pay. The overpayment should be recovered in instalments, on the understanding that if she leaves before it's dealt with they can take the last bit from her final salary.