Overpaid During Sick Leave

jdoc86

and yet again, the response being provided is not answering the question i have asked.

Is taking all my wage, without my agreement, to repay an over payment made due to administrative error?

I've never once said I do not think the money does not need to be repaid. So having responses saying I have bad finances and insinuating I'm stupid that I didn't follow how long I had been off, isn't really getting the help/advice that these forums are made for!

Mrs_CP

Do you have a copy of your contract of employment? What does it say about recovery of overpayments?

spadoosh

Yes it perfectly legal to make deductions from wages. Theres certain rules about protected earnings etc but essentially theyre taking an over payment and can take it all in one go if its available.

Frustrating thing for you is if you'dve taken a pro active approach to this and reported it straight up you couldve negotiated an interest free loan. By keeping your head in the sand its become a huge burden. The act is done now so i suspect payroll will be reluctant to undo it.


If its been deducted from SSP you could try and say 'implied duty of trust'. A bit wishy washy in that theres not much concrete to go on. Its just a bit of legislation saying lets try and be civil about our disagreement.


In the ideal situation they wouldve wrote to you and told you about the overpayment. They would offer a repayment plan. You would agree and sign. They would deduct. Im guessing you didnt respond to the letter? Or theyve rushed ahead and just gone through with it, i can understand, over payments to someone on long term sick are risky, increased chance the employee will never come back making recovey of the money somewhat harder and probably more expensive.

If you dont plan on leaving, you need to negotiate. Youre on the back foot because its been done. Explain your hardship(s) and try appealing to their compassionate side. If you go in with 'laws' and 'rights' youre wasting youre time. If you go in an accept some responsibility whilst hammering home being in hardship you might lose out less.

Good luck.

k3lvc

jdoc86 wrote: »

and yet again, the response being provided is not answering the question i have asked.

Is taking all my wage, without my agreement, to repay an over payment made due to administrative error?

I've never once said I do not think the money does not need to be repaid. So having responses saying I have bad finances and insinuating I'm stupid that I didn't follow how long I had been off, isn't really getting the help/advice that these forums are made for!

I'm sure there'll be a legal response provided soon based on whatever contract information you provide but generally I'd expect it to be repaid over the same period it was overpaid - in your case under 2 months.


Let's hope your income policy comes up trumps soon :eek:

jdoc86

eschaton wrote: »

Can't you use the extra £3k? I'm guessing that you wouldn't have spent it when you weren't entitled to it?

Hi,
The letter they sent me did not advise i needed to arrange a repayment, simply that it would be taken from future wages and they had notified my manager and i should speak with them. I spoke with them when i returned but she and my operations manager had no idea what was going on, or that i had even been overpaid.
Thanks

eschaton

jdoc86 wrote: »

and yet again, the response being provided is not answering the question i have asked.

Is taking all my wage, without my agreement, to repay an over payment made due to administrative error?

I've never once said I do not think the money does not need to be repaid. So having responses saying I have bad finances and insinuating I'm stupid that I didn't follow how long I had been off, isn't really getting the help/advice that these forums are made for!

Well if you want an answer then I think they were right to take all the money. You could have offered them a payment scheme but you let them do what they wanted.

As for not being able to work out how long six months is from November...... keep drip feeding us things like the income protection plan.

elsien

Legally, I believe the employer can deduct the full amount as they have done.
Good practice would suggest a repayment plan would be better.
Your best bet would be to go to whoever is in charge while your direct line manager is away and get their support to liaise with payroll.

I do think some of the responses have been a little judgemental. Maybe you should have noticed, but you didn't so there's little point people banging on about it.