Overpayment. Scots Law.

[praetor]

A company made a redundancy payment of 20 weeks pay based on length of service. They assumed that there needed to be paid 20 weeks net pay as well in lieu of notice.
The correct amount for notice ought to have been the statutory maximum (ie. 12 weeks)
They want 8 weeks pay back. They had confirmed the amount at a redundancy consultation meeting and in a letter before making payment.
Is this not an error of law on their part which would prevent them getting the overpayment back?

[Ethel]

An error on their part does not give you the right to keep money that you are not entitled to and should never have had.

Arrange to pay it back by instalments if you can't pay it all back at once.

However, if you can show that you 'changed your position' on account of receiving this money, this can be a legal defence.

Read more here:
http://www.lemon-co.co.uk/article_overpayment. php

[factor-fiction]

Ethel- good answer. Can Praetor also argue that the/she wouldn't have accepted the lower terms and therefore demand that the consultation process should begin again (and hence maybe entitle him/her to be paid for the weeks after leaving)? (Probably not.)

[Ethel]

No, because the lower terms are at the statutory levels. If this were voluntary redundancy and he refused the offer, they would simply make him redundant anyway, at the proper levels set by law.

[buildersmate]

The statutory maximum length of continuous service for calculation of redundancy IS 20 weeks, not 12, assuming praetor has 20 years service.
See here if you require further evidence of this.
http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/la yer?r.l1=1073858787&topicId=1079123792&r.lc=en &r.l2=1073876974&r.s=tl
Law on redundancy is no different in Scotland.