Overpaid - where do I stand?

zuleika-j

My mum's just received an email from her employer stating that she's been overpaid by about £20 a month for the last 5 years and that they will be deducting this overpayment (some £1200) from her next wage slip. Being such a small amount each month she was completely unaware of it. We think her employer will accept being paid back at the same rate she was overpaid i.e. £20 a month, but as she retires next year she is wondering how she will be able to afford to pay when she's living on a very small pension. Any advice (legal or otherwise) would be much appreciated.

SomeBozo

Assuming your mum is satisfied that she has been overpaid, to ask for it back in lump sum is not fair, but a monthly payment plan is better.

Its not her money and its not past 7 years (sometimes a cut off point).

Legally, she needs to pay back the money, so can she not pay off bigger amounts while she is working?
Can she use savings?

Bozo

midge61

hi
I am in the same position as your mum. I have been told that I have been overpaid since I started my job some 20 months ago.
Payroll have told me that (when they finally calculate the amount!) that they will set up a monthly repayment plan as they are not allowed to take it all back in one go.

I came across this when trying to find out more
http://www.lemon-co.co.uk/article_overpayments.php

I have also been advised to contact ACAS which I will do when I know the amount.
http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1461

Perhaps your mum should ring them and get some advice. CAB can also help with things like this.

Hope this helps

brightonman123

find this very hard to beleive, especially as the OP's first post.. payslips and annual P60's would show salary, deductions etc..

zuleika-j

Hi, thanks for replies. I'm not too sure which bit was hard to believe. My mum works for the local police force - her monthly payslips have various different shift allowances included and this only affected one of them. It was only noticed when she and colleagues compared their payslips recently and someone thought they were being underpaid so queried it with the payroll dept, otherwise I suspect it would never have been noticed by either my mum or her employer. Many thanks for the links midge61 - I'll check them out.

Liz_the_Whizz

hi zuleika-j,

In the circumstances where there has been a long period of overpayment which your mum could not reasonably have been expected to notice, she could try and mount a defence of estoppel.

It's a longstanding legal principle which can sometimes works in cases of overpayment of wages. The basis of estoppel is this - both your mum and her employer have been going along on an assumption that her pay was correct. If changing that position is damaging in some way, estoppel may apply.

Courts have been known to rule against employers where: the employer led the employee to believe that she was entitled to treat the money as her own; she could not have reasonably been expected to notice the overpayment; has spent the money in good faith; and the overpayment was not her fault.

Problem is that if your mum has savings, it's less likely to work. But the fact that she is retiring and repayments may have a disproportionate impact on her future income may make it worth considering. If your mum is in a union, they should be able to advise.

It is also well worth getting them to check that she has really been overpaid - with complicated public sector pay regimes, it's not impossible they have got it wrong - after all, they did for 5 years;) .

midge61

Hi

Mine is NHS pay. As your mum has had this £20 per month for so so long don't forget this will have an effect on her pension contributions.
I think what Liz has said is a good point and your mum should see if she can get some free legal advice via CAB or on her house insurance about the estoppel point.