Wages issue

stinabean

Hi all, just after some knowledge!
My partners wages was £19.5k pa however he stepped down from that position and signed paperwork agreeing to his new pay of £18.5k pa.
It turns out HR didn't do anything with this paperwork so he's continued receiving the higher wage for around 6 months. Neither of us were aware, it goes in the joint account and bills come out, but his employer are now saying he has to pay it back. 

We don't have it. We absolutely didn't realise he was bringing home more than he should. My question is, do they have a right to force him to pay it back?
Thanks for any insight. 

MovingForwards

Yes they do. He will need to sort out a payment arrangement with them.

Undervalued

stinabean said:

Hi all, just after some knowledge!
My partners wages was £19.5k pa however he stepped down from that position and signed paperwork agreeing to his new pay of £18.5k pa.
It turns out HR didn't do anything with this paperwork so he's continued receiving the higher wage for around 6 months. Neither of us were aware, it goes in the joint account and bills come out, but his employer are now saying he has to pay it back. 

We don't have it. We absolutely didn't realise he was bringing home more than he should. My question is, do they have a right to force him to pay it back?
Thanks for any insight. 

The short answer is yes, it is as much the employee's duty to check that their pay is correct as it is the employer's.

There is a much talked about but seldom successful legal concept called estoppel  that can, very occasionally in the most exceptional circumstances, be used to avoid paying. However for any chance of that working you would need to show that you had repeatedly questioned the overpayment and had been assured that it was correct by somebody with authority in the company. Based on what you have posted there is next to zero chance here.

You could obviously try writing a nice letter explaining the circumstances and asking, as a gesture of goodwill, if they will waive the amount or agree a compromise. Who knows? they might agree.

stinabean

Ahhhh balls. That's gonna make a tough financial situation juuuust a little bit worse 😂 thanks for the quick response x

TELLIT01

The best he can hope for is to be allowed to repay the money over an extended period.  The employer may claim, quite rightly, that he should have noticed that his pay hadn't reduced and reported the fact.

74jax

Could you ask to pay it back over the same period, ie 6 months? 

Marcon

Undervalued said:

stinabean said:

Hi all, just after some knowledge!
My partners wages was £19.5k pa however he stepped down from that position and signed paperwork agreeing to his new pay of £18.5k pa.
It turns out HR didn't do anything with this paperwork so he's continued receiving the higher wage for around 6 months. Neither of us were aware, it goes in the joint account and bills come out, but his employer are now saying he has to pay it back. 

We don't have it. We absolutely didn't realise he was bringing home more than he should. My question is, do they have a right to force him to pay it back?
Thanks for any insight. 

There is a much talked about but seldom successful legal concept called estoppel  that can, very occasionally in the most exceptional circumstances, be used to avoid paying. However for any chance of that working you would need to show that you had repeatedly questioned the overpayment and had been assured that it was correct by somebody with authority in the company. Based on what you have posted there is next to zero chance here.

Estoppel is rarely the term used nowadays - 'change of position' is in common usage. As you say, no chance of success here as OP's OH could or should have realised they were being overpaid because their hours were reduced but the amount paid in to their bank account didn't change. That scuppers a change of position argument immediately, I'm afraid.

Savvy_Sue

Where the money ended up - his account, your account, your joint account - is completely irrelevant. The employer will have supplied a payslip. If you do nothing more than check that the net amount is what you're expecting, compared to the previous month, you should at least do that each month. His salary was supposed to go down, he knew that, and he didn't say anything when it didn't. 

Best bet is to ask if the overpayment can be recovered over the same period, as already suggested. 

static266

I had a double payment one month when I had transferred. They asked for repayment and I asked for a 6 month repayment plan which they agreed to. I then paid off my credit card and saved being charged the interest thanks to my employer messing up. You may as well try to negotiate the repayments to be spread out.