Ex-employer keeps paying me

elsien

Penguin_ said:

It always amazes me how little attention people pay to their bank accounts. I check mine daily & know usually how much is in each account give or take a tenner.

OP, I'd pay as much back in one go as you can then offer to re-pay the balance in x installments.

It’s easily done. A few years back I was paid overtime due to another colleague with a similar name  for 2 or 3 months before I noticed. 

I don’t feel the need to check my account any more often than once a month now,  and am on top of my finances well enough to suit my circumstances. Whatever works for you but I’d find daily checks over the top.  

Dox

Helpme88xxxx said:

I’m desperately seeking help to allow me to sleep and eat again! 

This type of situation during covid times isn’t welcome and I’ve honestly lost so much sleep being worried sick about it. I’m far from a theif or fraudster. 

Why? Get a grip! You've done nothing wrong. Your former employer has messed up, you alerted them to the fact and you intend to pay back the amounts received in error. 

When they finally get round to sorting this out, pay what you can and then offer to repay the balance in instalments. Suggest a payment plan you know you can stick to but bearing in mind this was cash you couldn't have expected to receive, anything longer than 3 months or so might be tricky to justify.

dollywops

TBagpuss said:

As others have said, you won't be done for fraud - you alerted them as soon as you became aware of the error.

They will need to arrange with you for you to repay the money and they will need to update records with HMRC to ensure that the tax position is sorted. 
confirm to them in writing that you wish to make arrangements to refund the overpayments and ask that they confirm to you how much is owed and where to transfer it, and also ask that they confirm what information they summitted to HMRC, and when, so that if they failed to di your P45 correctly, or have paid tax and NI on the payments, you can get that corrected as well. 

Since it sounds as though their payroll department is a bit slack you may want to call HMRC yourself to check the position and find out whether you need to do anything to correct your tax / NI records - I am not sure whether you or your former employer will need to deal with them to straighten things out but either way, you won't be in trouble, you haven't done anything wrong. 

Currently, the information submitted to HMRC is correct as is the P45.  Once the overpayment has been repaid, your former employer will report this to HMRC.  They cannot, legally, issue a new P45, but can issue a statement of earnings, again once the overpayment has been repaid.

As others have suggested, offer to pay back a lump sum now and the rest by manageable instalments.