Overpayment of wages

[Hettster]

Situation

Employee works for an employer for many years.

Employee has been given an overpayment in their wages that the Employee did not notice at the time.

Employee has spent the monies overpaid.

Employee retires from the employer.

Employee receives a letter from the employer 8 months after retiring asking for the money back


There now follows 3 questions about the above situation

Does the Employee have to repay the money?

If the money has to be repaid can it be done over a period of time?

If money can be repaid over a period of time are there guidelines available ?

Is there a timeframe for repayment available that can be refered to?

[daffy654]

Yes the money does have to be repaid.

[Canary42]

Yes
Yes
Discuss it with employer - a Court would give time but costly for Employer to go to such lengths if employee is "reasonable"
Ditto

[tiggerblue10]

They should be able to pay it back in monthly installments.

[mccfluff]

morally yes and repayment terms is somethign to be agreed with between the two parties, Legally i'm not 100% sure where they stand but here is a situation we have runnign at the mo

Employee left giving no notice just didn;t turn up for work, the bacs run had gone meaning we had paid them for the month's work a week of which she didn't do. We have written to her requesting the money be returned and advising we will take legal action if she doesn't.

reality - its a bluff we won;t take action over the money as its not worth the time and legal fees to us.

[Notveryhappy]

How much was it for?

[thugulike]

You could use the Doctrine of Equitable Estoppel if it was reasonable that you didn't know you had been overpaid and that you used the overpayment money for everyday expenses. This is a legal answer, not a moral one. If you would really struggle to repay it may be worth going to County Court for a judgement. Any court will allow repayments over a period of time if you can afford to repay. Take advice from CAB