Paid by work twice

James3891

Hi wonder if anyone can help, the company i work for always pays last working day of the month.
With the bank holiday weekend their policy is to always pay before the bank holiday so would have been early hours of the 28th March.
However someone in payroll forgot it was a bank holiday and put it through with the bank to clear on Friday 29th so ofcourse no-one got paid, multiple bounced direct debits , mortgages etc.
Several sites were affected and several thousand employees.
A decision was taken by company directors in a panic at the complaints they got to instruct the bank to put cleared funds in our bank on the afternoon of the 28th.
However we were told the original mistaken payment would still go through and go into our banks on the 2nd so essentially we were getting paid twice which then had to be repaid.
Whilst this was generous, most banks will have bounced everything by the 5pm on the 28th when the money finally went in .
They have now asked for full repayment by Friday 5th of April so gave a week to pay it into the company account.
They have asked nicely and will get their money back but i wondered if they could take it back out of next months wages, i know of many who had things go out automatically when the money went in, pay day loans etc that had a CPA set up .Obviously many have had that money swallowed up instantly or into overdrafts etc.
I have been on statutory sick pay for 5 weeks so only got paid half salary and had most of both salaries go out automatically even though i had accepted i couldn't pay some things til my pay returned to full.
I know of many proposing to repay £100-£200 a month back but will they accept that or dock wages next time?

Thanks

Savvy_Sue

They should pay any bank charges, given suitable proof.

But spread this over several months? I can't see why they would agree to that.

corbyboy

It's a bit of a mess because it sounds like you were planning for some payments to bounce anyway.

Surely direct debits would come out after the bank holiday rather than before? Don't they usually come out later rather than earlier on a BH?

The best thing to do would be talk to your employer as early as possible. Make sure you mention about any fees for bounced direct debits you have had to pay.

If you are overpaid your employer would usually be reasonable and take the money back over a suitable period of time. In this circumstance it seems reasonable for them to ask for it all back right away since they have helped you out.

Fluff15

I think all you can do it ask, but if they want it back in one immediately then you have no ground to stand on. See http://www.unison-scotland.org.uk/briefings/overpay.html