Paid in error.

[mike1222]

How would I stand legally if my bank account was credited twice by a government department when it should have only been a one-off payment? This is obviously only a hypothetical situation !

[dzug]

If it's the bank's error, they can ask for/take it back

If it's the government department's error, then they can ask for it back.

In either case they have the law on their side.

[Vesper99]

You know the answer already.

They will surely discover the error and you can claim the ,moral high ground by informing them first

[Loosehead]

This sort of thing comes up time and time again. I don't know why anyone would imagine that an error makes it ok to steal or indeed those erring should be punished by forfiture. If you left your wallet in my house would I be allowed to keep it?

[mike1222]

Loosehead, get off your high horse! I assume you know what "hypothetical" means!

If, as you say, it comes up time and time again, perhaps you could post some of the links to this question. Cheers!

[Loosehead]

Do a search Mike if you're interested. This subject raises it's head in various guises so there is no standard form of words to search for but keep an eye out and it'll come up again. Here's one for example:
http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Business-and-Fi nance/Question185640.html
or here
http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Business-and-Fi nance/Question227243.html

a search on "Bank Mistake" should find some.

[dukas68]

My brother had something similiar with family credit , where he was paid too much , what he did and I would do , is don't do anything with the money but don't inform the govt either , just hope they don't discover it which in my brothers case they havn 't............I know its not the morally correct thing to do but since when did governments have morals ?