Money Moral Dilemma: My employer keeps overpaying me and isn't taking the money back

Savvy_Sue

mimgable said:

I had overpayments relating to working tax credits+kept phoning and sending written letters. Eventually i resorted to writing in huge letters in caps+bold ‘stop paying me this money’ That did the trick…quick response full of apologies and compensation payment for stress caused+costs! I was posting a cheque each time they made overpayment. That way no issues re benefitting from the money+messing up benefits+taxes Benefitting from your employers could be an issue as technically it’s their money, +as pointed out ni and tax implications. I’d pay it back each time+if you don’t have cheque book, get bank/building society cheque to issue if no cost involved. It may sound like a bonus getting interest etc but that could come back to bite you.

Bit in Bold: that may be possible to do with WTC and other benefits, it's not nearly as straightforward with a net payment received through PAYE. The repayment needs to be calculated via payroll to take into account tax and NI which will also have been overpaid, and it's going to be a fiddle. 

I'd just add that sorting it out before the end of the tax year would be very sensible from the employer's perspective, and it may be worth reminding them of this each month it continues ... 

mlz1413

As so many have said you are doing everything right. Keep the money separate and wait.

You have alerted them and you have the email trial.  Make sure you have those emails to a personal email account and not just a work email.  So you will always have access to them.

Just wait for them to sort it out.

Also regarding the higher pay,  the higher PAYE &NIC shouldn't make a difference to you unless you are on Universal credit (but you didn't mention that so going to  assume that is not a problem).  

Your Pension contributions are going to be higher and the employers contributions higher too. 

So maybe if you want to send another email saying that you have realised the Pension contributions are going to be skewed because of their error but you assume that this will not be used against you and that any payments made are at the company cost whilst they correct the error.

Tell them you are only expecting to return the overpaid nett pay
ie £500pm based on the fact you used to get £1000 nett per month and are now receiving £1500 pm. (insert own figures).

You could also end that saying as this is your Xth correspondence on the matter you will leave them to sort the mistake out.

Although I would add that when asked to return the money ensure you have the bank details on official company letterhead.  That the value to be returned is broken down and agrees to the value you have held in the account. 

Any interest on that money I would consider to be yours.  You took the time to separate the money and keep it safe, literally you have earned it.

Jurassic_spark_2

While employed by "AUNTIE". In the early 90's. I was working with a camera crew in London. I got a phone call from the missus and she said "your payslip has just arrived, someone in wages has made an error and instead of putting your salary as PA per annum. They have put it as PW per week."

I said check the bank balance today. Which she did, and low and behold, there was a big wedge in our bank.
As it was Friday, and i wasn't due home until Monday. I said put the wedge into the building society and i will sort it on Monday. This she duly did, as interest rates at the time were should we say high. I was surprised how much was accrued in such a short time. 

Being a dog lover i gave the accrued interest to my local dog rescue centre, who were most grateful and gave me a receipt. Which i duly presented to the wages dept. together with the overpayment on Monday.