Overpaid Wages

[Beechy101]

I left an employer in Novermber 2017. I have since received a letter in June 2018 saying i have been overpaid and they want repayment totalling £2400. They say i was paid in error in December 2017 and January 2018.

They enclosed a letter they claim to have sent me in March 2018 to advise me of this which i did not receive. I can see i was paid incorrectly but how do i stand regarding repayment of this money?

As this was an error caused by them are they entitled to it back? The overpaid will have had an effect of tax credits myself and my wife receive which again is not down to an error caused by myself.

[woofgang]

From my recall of managing in the NHS, yes they are entitled to have the money back but they have to make a reasonable agreement with you about how it is paid so as not to leave you in difficult circs. Did you not realise that you should not have been paid? Such things almost always catch up with you.

[Canary42]

Sadly, they are entitled. I suggest you agree to repay in instalemnts to suit your circumstances and they are extremely unlikely to contest that in Court as would probably be thrown out.

[fiction-factory]

If there had been an underpayment of wages and they were offering ou the money would you have accepted it?
I suggest you refund it and let the tax credits people know so they can see if that increases your entitlement.
You could offer to repay the overpayment in instalments over say 6 months (which is roughly how long they took to discover it) and they might accept that.
I'm surprised you didn't notice at teh time that they were continuing to pay you. I'd have stuck it in a highish interest rate account and then let them know and offered to pay it back within a month or two

[Beechy101]

I did realise and emailed them but no reply. I then contacted by bank to see if it was possible to block them paying money into my account but they couldn't do this. The bank "advised" me that the money would be most likely be written off as an error but obviously it hasn't been.

I am not in a position to pay this money back in 1 go and if I do end up having to pay it, i hope they will accept this on instalments.

[fiction-factory]

I think there is a good chance they will accept instalments. You could even try for £200 a month for 12 months although i think £400 x 6 months is fairer.
On a different topic did you ever find the answer to this song query i tried to help you with a few years ago?
https://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Music/Question1467558.html

[woofgang]

That was really stupid advice by the bank. Best thing to do in such circs, if you REALLY can't get a response from the employer is to shove the money in a separate savings account until the matter is sorted...and to send the company a registered letter informing them of the error.

[MallyJ]

I was over paid some years ago and paid it back in installments over 3 years.....my union helped me with that. Talk to your union (hopefully you are with one) and they will help. If you don't belong to one you can negotiate a very low repayment....that will not leave you in financial difficulties. If you notice you are being over paid in the future put the money into a savings account so you can pay back but may well get a bit of interest out of it too!