Serious overpayment of wages

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onekeano

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A friend who does payroll for a large company has very recently realised that they have overpaid a person who left the company some time ago by around of €25,000. Needless to say my friend is very concerned about this and the possible implications for his job.

The error was a repeating error and the recipient would have been aware for reasons that I won't go into on this forum. My question is, is there any redress in terms of getting the recipient to pay back the monies she should not have received?

I'm sure there must be precedents for this and I am wondering is this covered by law and what would be the norm for recovering such monies?

Roy
 
The person who was incorrectly paid the money will owe it back (but could make things dificult by delaying etc.). Depending on the circumstances, it may be possible to arrange some kind of installment plan.

Your friend needs to highlight this error to their boss as soon as possible. They may get in serious trouble but there is no way that trying to keep it a secret can make the situation any better.

Maybe your friend should have some suggestions on additional controls required to stop this ever happening again ready for management. - e.g. sign-offs etc.
 
onekeano said:
A friend who does payroll for a large company has very recently realised that they have overpaid a person who left the company some time ago by around of €25,000. Needless to say my friend is very concerned about this and the possible implications for his job.

The error was a repeating error and the recipient would have been aware for reasons that I won't go into on this forum. My question is, is there any redress in terms of getting the recipient to pay back the monies she should not have received?

I'm sure there must be precedents for this and I am wondering is this covered by law and what would be the norm for recovering such monies?

Roy
Click to expand...

You might want to give the reason of how the error occured. Was it to do with tax credits/bands.

How long has the person left the Company

Is it possible to amend the p35/p60/p45 to recoup some of the money via the tax paid etc

How did you friend find out about the error?

Was error picked up when last set of accounts done and wage rec done.

Be interested to know why receiptent aware of error and did not repay it at time
 
thank you for the replies so far. The person left the company about 3 months ago - not possible to get some of it back thru P35/45/60. We're only assuming that the person was aware of the overpayment - would have been REALLY obvious to them but they have not yet been formally approached about paying back yet.
 
onekeano said:
thank you for the replies so far. The person left the company about 3 months ago - not possible to get some of it back thru P35/45/60. We're only assuming that the person was aware of the overpayment - would have been REALLY obvious to them but they have not yet been formally approached about paying back yet.
Click to expand...

Better off write to them now and ask for repayment

is it all in 2010 or is some of it in 2009?

What is stopping you from amending p35/p60/p45?
 
papervalue said:
Better off write to them now and ask for repayment

is it all in 2010 or is some of it in 2009?

What is stopping you from amending p35/p60/p45?
Click to expand...

I wouldnt think amending the P35 etc would be good idea as this reflects the salary that the employee was actually paid. Although the employee was incorrectly overpaid, the P35 reflects the amount they actually received.

If the employee refuses to give the money back, it could be very difficult to try and force them. They could always argue that their contract was renegotiated. First place to start is the employment contract
 
I used to do payroll in a large company and this happened a lot. In my defence it was never my fault. The people over paid were usually in Sales because they never worked their notice and their managers were rubbish about doing any kind of HR paperwork. So I wouldn't know they had left.

We used to ask for the money and hold off issuing a P45 until it was. Is this an option in this case?

Even if it was your friends mistake it's best to come clean, these thing can happen. People make expensive mistakes all the time.
 
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