work has overpaid me and i have spent it what should i do

spassion

Hi i hope this post is in the right place, i checked my bank account online only to discover that my wage had gone in and was £3,000 more than what i get a month, I thought that i had received some tax back or it was back pay from re banding......... so i promptly paid off my debts (the ones that could not wait) with it with a large sigh of relief.........I then went to work following day and picked up my payslip to find the amount was on my payslip BUT no indication as to why or where this money had come from such as back pay or tax back it just says that its for hours worked and there is no way that I have worked over 200 and something hours in a month I am sure it cant be right. Now i am in a state of panic as I have paid debts off with this money and if my employers want it back I have no chance of paying it back in full what should i do keep quiet? inform my employers? HELP!

shandypants5

Have you worked any bank holidays or sundays ? you may have been paid double/triple time.

If it was me I would just stay quiet for now, at least untill you have calculated your hours properly and can really say the moneys not yours.

spassion

Hi there no not really and even if i had it would have to be a hell of a lot of bank holidays, weekends and nights my partner has suggested I keep quiet but i dont know if i can im worried as i have paid debts off and i have no way of paying this back in full to my employers

macchicken

I'd say keep it, if they say anything say you didnt notice and you can afford to pay it back at a small ammount a month.

G-G_4

I'd keep quiet..

But don't bet on them not finding out..

mshappy

I think if they have overpaid you then they can lawfully ask for it to be repaid, but seems its there error you could offer them something stupid like £1 a week.£3000 is alot of money not to of noticed.Personally I wouldn't of even touched it.

tomstickland

You need to tell them about their error.
Meanwhile if you can't pay it back, you'll have to negotiate to pay it back in little bits spread over a year or two.

spassion

Do you think I should contact wages department and ask them if the payment is correct and not an error (so it dont make me look stupid even tho i am as stupid as stupid as can be) rather than wait for them to contact me (then I wont look as stupid)

annie_d

That happened to me and i had to pay them back at £100 a month

spassion

Hi Annie did they over pay you by a lot ? and was they ok with you or did you get a major telling off for not noticing their error and spending money that was not yours

lavamyz

Hi

it may have changed since i had a large number of employees myself (over 50 about 2 years ago - never again!!!) but if you can prove that you spent it "without realising" i.e. you went about your daily business, didnt make any mad spending etc then the company would need to come to an arrangement with you on repaying it.

however if you saw it in your account and went out on a splurge, and i would assume paying off debts falls into this category, then it would pretty clear you knew the money was not normal and the company could pursue you for the lot.

as i say - it happened to me accidentally once, and was 100's rather than thousands and the employee called me immediately and told me but i called our legal advice helpline that i subscribed to at the time and this is what they said.