overpayment of wages

System

My sister has had a telephone conversation this morning with her employer. They state that she may well have been overpaid wages for several months, due to the fact that she has had to leave work early to attend her college studies. What is the correct procedure of repaying wages that may have been overpaid back to the employer.

Many thanks in advance

V

System

Re:overpayment of wages

The repayment must be agreed by your sister and must be at a level that she can comfortably afford over an agreed period of time.

I recall some years ago making an overpayment to one of our warehousemen who then went to citizen's advice and got the repayment amount agreed to such a small level, it was going to take years to clear a couple of months overpayment. Fortunately for the company, there was an agreement in his contract of employment that all outstanding monies could be deducted from his final salary and the money was eventually repaid.

What does her contract of employment say?

I would recommend calling the CAB anyway.

System

Re:overpayment of wages

She doesn't have any contract of employment, so there is nothing to refer to. I am concerned regarding the PAYE and NI that she has paid. Does she have to pay her employer back the full amount that they paid including the PAYE and NI? or just the amount she received?

Because if she has to pay the total amount back this would mean that she would be paying PAYE and NI on money that she never had the benefit of, and would this mean she would have to reclain the PAYE AND NI from HMRC?

Hope that makes sense

V

System

Re:overpayment of wages

She would only have to pay back the amounts she has actually received. It will be down to the employer to get her tax and NI corrected. I know in Sage Payroll, I can "roll back" an employee and re-do their pay month by month at the correct rates so that the end of year returns are correct. I would then calculate the difference between the amount actually paid to the employee from the amount that should have been paid to work out the amount due back from the employee. I would also work out the overpayment of tax and NI to the Inland Revenue and adjust my next payment to correct that. Your sister should ask for a full explanation of how the calculation has been done.

Again, it really would be in your sister's best interest to talk to her local Citizen Advice Bureau as they should have someone there that will understand it all and will make sure she is treated fairly.