Got paid for a job I quit in December

Minnosh

Hi,

I just got my bank statement through today and was looking through it and was shocked to see I had been a week's wages on January the 29th, but I had left the job on December the 1st. I had already received my final wages and a redundancy payment, but I have now received an extra £1050. While I am over the moon at this, I am on benefits and worried that this could make it appear that I have been working without informing the authorities, which is not the case. Will I have to pay the company the money back?

What do I have to do? The benefit system is already desperate to cut me out and I don't want any issues to occur. Thanks

Stevie_Palimo

Ring them up and discuss what you believe to be an over payment, It may be accrued holiday pay and if you were due it then report the figure to the benefits dept to make sure you are paid the correct amount due to you here.

sourcrates

A similar thing happened to me a very long time ago, 1996 to be exact, I was sub-contracted to a firm, who paid me for an extra month after I`d left.


I had, I believe, worked a month in hand to begin with, but was still unsure if it had been a mistake or not.


Anyway, the company never contacted me about it, so either it was right and above board, or they just forgot about it, I don't know which, wait and see if they get in touch with you or not.

Takingmytime

Definitely find out if you're due the money, but I don't agree with letting the benefit office know unless you're breaking their terms (eg threshold allowed for savings). I don't know much about the new system, but I do know that gifts and such didn't have to be declared so long as your savings remained below the eligibility threshold for benefits.
You have already declared your last job and if they decide to process this as additional income (which it wouldn't be, it'd be back pay) you could end up on a new claim and wait 7 weeks or whatever it is for your new claim to be processed.
Furthermore, they expect you to be paid within the timeframe of processing a new claim as this is the argument IDS puts forward as to why benefits are delayed.
I'm more worried something like that could force you into hardship or debt just because of timing of a payment if they immediately withdraw all benefits.