Overpaid wages

cissybo

Hi everyone

 hoping someone can help with this. I restarted work after maternity leave in June last year. Once I’d received my first pay I thought it looked too much so contacted HR and told them I thought they’d overpaid me and reminded them that I had gone from working 10 hours per week before maternity leave down to 6 hours per week. They reassured me a couple of times that it was correct. I questioned it again in November but again was reassured. Now in January hr have contacted to say I was overpaid by £1500 and asked me to agree to a repayment schedule ( even the lowest option they suggested would leave me working for them for practically nothing. Just wondering firstly whether it’s right for them to ask for it back when they told me several times over that it was correct so that I didn’t keep the money aside and also whether I’d be unreasonable to suggest a much lower repayment schedule. I’m quite annoyed at them for doing it tbh. TIA!

DullGreyGuy

So you've been overpaid for 7 months? How many months are they asking you to repay over?

Undervalued

cissybo said:

Hi everyone

 hoping someone can help with this. I restarted work after maternity leave in June last year. Once I’d received my first pay I thought it looked too much so contacted HR and told them I thought they’d overpaid me and reminded them that I had gone from working 10 hours per week before maternity leave down to 6 hours per week. They reassured me a couple of times that it was correct. I questioned it again in November but again was reassured. Now in January hr have contacted to say I was overpaid by £1500 and asked me to agree to a repayment schedule ( even the lowest option they suggested would leave me working for them for practically nothing. Just wondering firstly whether it’s right for them to ask for it back when they told me several times over that it was correct so that I didn’t keep the money aside and also whether I’d be unreasonable to suggest a much lower repayment schedule. I’m quite annoyed at them for doing it tbh. TIA!

999 times out of 1000 any accidental overpayment of wages will have to be paid back.

There are a very few cases in which the employee has been able to use a concept called Estoppel to avoid repayment. Perhaps the best know involved an employee of Barclays Bank, backed by their union.

You would need to have made multiple queries and been repeatedly reassured that the money was correct by somebody suitably senior in the organisation that you had good reason to believe them. I think also you would need to have spent the money, reasonably assuming it was yours.

It might just be that what you describe crosses this line (or not) but expect a battle! Even if you were to win in court what real world effect would this have on your employment situation?

From memory the Barclays case had been overpaying for years, not just once, and involved a great deal more money.

You certainly have strong moral grounds (not that it helps) for either very easy payment terms or some / all of it being written off. However if they take you to court and win you will be ordered to pay at a rate that the court thinks you can afford, plus maybe costs.

Think carefully!

cissybo

I was overpaid for 6 months and they’re asking for repayment over 6 months. On the repayment schedule I would end up being paid £130 a month instead of the correct amount of £380. So will end up working for very little for them. This is not my only income but I’m not happy for them to ask me to work for £130 a month

cissybo

Thanks undervalued. I very much don’t want to go to court over it, I work for a charity and the fault is with hr and not the actual branch of the charity I work for. I’m just so annoyed that they reassured me so many times so thought I’d check whether they have grounds given I asked them and they reassured me more than once. I think I’ll just take the easier route and ask for a longer repayment period

Undervalued

cissybo said:

Thanks undervalued. I very much don’t want to go to court over it, I work for a charity and the fault is with hr and not the actual branch of the charity I work for. I’m just so annoyed that they reassured me so many times so thought I’d check whether they have grounds given I asked them and they reassured me more than once. I think I’ll just take the easier route and ask for a longer repayment period

As I said, just possibly but it is not clear cut.

Otherwise, legally you have no right to "easy" repayment terms. However, as I also said, if they took you to court and won but you could show that you couldn't afford to pay all at once the court would impose some kind of schedule. So, on that basis they almost certainly will agree some compromise terms.

I would be tempted to write to the head of the organisation and really dump their HR department in it and see what happens!

Or, call their bluff and say that you will pay (say) £50 a month as that is all you can afford. Given the hassle involved they may well accept.

Exodi

Undervalued said:

Or, call their bluff and say that you will pay (say) £50 a month as that is all you can afford. Given the hassle involved they may well accept.

Or maybe take the middle option and offer an amount that is affordable to the OP.

We know the debt is £1500. They want the OP to pay £250 a month over 6 months - maybe counter this with £125 a month over 12 months?

pinkshoes

cissybo said:

Hi everyone

 hoping someone can help with this. I restarted work after maternity leave in June last year. Once I’d received my first pay I thought it looked too much so contacted HR and told them I thought they’d overpaid me and reminded them that I had gone from working 10 hours per week before maternity leave down to 6 hours per week. They reassured me a couple of times that it was correct. I questioned it again in November but again was reassured. Now in January hr have contacted to say I was overpaid by £1500 and asked me to agree to a repayment schedule ( even the lowest option they suggested would leave me working for them for practically nothing. Just wondering firstly whether it’s right for them to ask for it back when they told me several times over that it was correct so that I didn’t keep the money aside and also whether I’d be unreasonable to suggest a much lower repayment schedule. I’m quite annoyed at them for doing it tbh. TIA!

This is somewhat tricky, as assuming your hourly rate hasn't increased, then the amount you were receiving was MUCH more than you should have been paid, and although you were sensible to query this, it would have also been sensible to put the extra amount aside for a few years...

On the other hand, you did check with HR twice that the amount was right, and they said it was correct, so I would suggest as you took measures to point out their error and they actually insisted it wasn't an error, it should be paid back at a lower rate of say £125 a month.

Savvy_Sue

Are you in a union?

We have had a similar situation, although it would have been difficult for those affected to realise the error. We're talking smaller amounts, and we agreed to write it off. Had we not done so, I'd have recommended Union involvement. 

MEM62

cissybo said:

I was overpaid for 6 months and they’re asking for repayment over 6 months. On the repayment schedule I would end up being paid £130 a month instead of the correct amount of £380. So will end up working for very little for them. This is not my only income but I’m not happy for them to ask me to work for £130 a month

They are not asking you to work for £130 a month.  You will be working for you full salary - albeit with additional deductions to clear the overpayment.  That said, I think you have the upper hand here in negotiating a longer repayment period.  Of course this cannot be years but I think that 12 months would not be unreasonable.  

goater78

It’s annoying but even though they assured you it was right you recognised it was clearly an overpayment. You should have continued to query it and save the excess as they were always going to ask for it back eventually.