Overpayment of Wages

dwilson85

My partner is having an ongoing issue with her employer regarding an overpayment of her salary. She is paid monthly was returning to work from maternity leave at the time. Her salary should have comprised of 3 and a bit weeks of SMP and 1 week of regular pay, being £240.

The payslip she received gave her -
SMP - 464.40
SALARY - 1864.63

The value for SMP is correct, so she has been overpaid on the salary part by over £1200.

This has caused deductions to be taken from her as follows -
Tax - 277.20
NI - 203.40
Arrestment - £286.29
Student Loan - £91.00

My partner contacted her employer the day she received this pay to tell them she has been overpaid, and has constantly been asking about it since. They have came back to he and told her that she owes over £1000. Judging by the fact that her overpayment has resulted in Tax and NI contributions increasing massively and other deductions also changing. I was wondering if anyone can answer the following.

1. In the case of employer error, what can be done to recover the increase in Tax/NI contributions. We are not in a financial postition to wait until April for a Tax Rebate.

2.The amount paid for wage arrestment has also been massively increased by no fault of our, yet her employer says hes liable and cant get the money back. Can anything be done.

3. A payment was made to Student Loans when my partner is not earning enough to pay it back yet. Can this money be recovered.

4. Should the employer not be responsible for fixing their own mistake. My partner suggested to them to make up a fresh pay slip with the correct deductions and she would repay the difference, but they refused.

5. Who are the best people to speak to regarding this if we are not satisfied with the employers response [the workplace has no union].

robster30

I had a similar situation couple years ago.

I was overpaid by about 1200 nett. I notified my employer who took their merry time stop the overpayment hence the high amount.

They recovered it as a gross amount which I disputed. I took my case to HMRC etc for advice and long story short is that my employer is perfectly entitled to recover it as a gross amount as they pay me gross and I am not due a tax rebate as a lump sum.
The only tax rebate I am due small monthly amount. My employer deducts my repayments from my salary as gross and therefore I only pay tax on the reduced amount so in effect I pay less tax each month.

Althought it was thier mistake you're employer can and will recover it from you.