Salary overpayment for nearly a year

[happynerd]

Hi,

10 months ago I received a pay rise, quite a large one. (NHS).

8 months ago, I queried with the payroll dept, if it was correct.

I received an email stating it was.

Fast forward to last month and I have been informed the pay rise was too much and I need to pay back an amount which equates to a months take home pay.

They also said they realised the error last October but have only just got around to sorting it!!

My argument, is they confirmed the rise was correct, realised it wasn't a month later but have taken 8 months to let me know.

Do I have to pay it back?

Another thing to throw into the mix is I will be leaving the job shortly.

Thanks in advance.

[ULA]

If an employer has overpaid an employee, even though this is often the employer’s responsibility, the overpayment of wages will still need to be repaid since the employer is legally entitled to recover any salary overpayment from the employee.

You may be able to make the point that you checked with them and they confirmed this was correct and the fact that they found out last October and have taken this long to "sort it out" as some leverage.

You have not said how long it is before you are leaving but is there time to agree a repayment plan of the overpayment?

[happynerd]

I am leaving in a month, they don't know yet.

After I had confirmation that the rise was correct, I changed my spending habits.

My feeling is if they knew about the error last October but did nothing, that is their loss.

Although I don't want to pay anything, I feel the most I should pay would be up to what was due in October last year.

[ULA]

It is certainly worth entering a discussion with your employer to see what you can agree. An argument you can use is a "change of position" i.e. you have spent the money on every-day living expenses because you had a genuine belief that the money was yours to spend. You could certainly argue this was the case once you had confirmation from your employer that the salary you were receiving was correct.