Been Overpaid by £700- do I have to give it back?!!!

Ok guys, help me out here please...
I've just received a letter by my former employer telling me I've been overpaid by £700 (now a few months ago) and that they'd like the whole amount back...
am I legally obliged to repay the amount?!
Is there any way I can refuse?
I did not know I was being overpaid, and hence it is not my fault...
I was told they'd call me in whenever the required me again, they didn't, but I was still paid full-time...
I don't have the money to give back now...what to do?!!

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Reply 1

DaneCook

No, you are not legally obliged to give it back. Seeing as you were never informed of that the payments were INFACT extra payments.
Tell them to sod off.

Reply 2

FallenPetal

Depends if you were officially dismissed.

If they want that money they are going to need to prove that you weren't working for them, at the moment I don't think that you are under any legal obligation to repay them.

Reply 3

Beef_Eater

http://www.worksmart.org.uk/money/i_have_been_told_i_was_overpaid

Reply 4

M_E_X

1 Economic Historian

I believe you WILL have to give it back, in the same way that when the bank deposits extra money into your account by mistake, you can't just withdraw it all and keep it.
In short; above poster is wrong, don't spend it, you'll have to give it back.

edit; Beef_Eater, that link isn't relevant. He doesn't work there anymore, so it's not about his wages being docked to pay for it. It's about him having to dip into his savings to repay it.

Reply 5

The Procrastinator

I got over paid by £1000, I knew, they knew it. I quit the next day and ran for my life. Couple of months later they closed down. Not my doing, by the way!!

Don't pay it.

Reply 6

zef99

Read Carefully

Did you realise you had been overpaid?

Have you spent the money?

If you haven't spent the money, then you have to give it back. If you didn't realise you had been overpaid and spent it in good faith then you do not have to pay it back.

If however, they can prove that you did realise you had been overpaid, and then went on to spend the money, then you have to give it back.

So, to clarify, if you haven't spent it, then you have to give it back. If you have spent it in good faith, ie. didn't realise they'd made a mistake maybe you presumed it was a bonus (this argument is unlikely to hold up), then you don't have to give it back. If you have spent it and you realised they had made a mistake and that the money wasn't rightfully yours, then you still have to give it back.

I believe this is correct, although, I'd wait for Jacketpotato to comment, he's bound to know more about this than me.

Reply 7

Economic Historian 1

FallenPetal

Nope I wasn't even told I was dismissed.
I was set to work in the new store (White City), and hence management was very poor at the time, but I was told I'd be phone and told when to next come in...but no reference was made to me not being paid. I received no correspondence of any sort saying I'd be dismissed etc, they only once sent a letter asking for references, referring to me as an employee. Since I was busy with school etc anyway, I didn't phone them back to ask to work more, but I didn't realise I was being paid for it anyway....my contract with them ended at the end of December, and they've only just realised...
Why should I now suddenly have to pay it back?

Reply 8

The_Goose

*awaits jacketpotato*

Reply 9

LLB Kevin

1 Economic Historian

Now it's been three years since I last did Contract but, unless I am very much mistaken, under contract law you owe them the money. You might've been able to get away with it under equity IF you'd checked with your employers at the time they paid, they said it was money you were due and you then acted in reliance on this by spending the money. Doesn't sound like this happened, though.

Reply 10

Economic Historian 1

zef99

I didn't realise I was overpaid.
I haven't spent the money as such in terms of the account, but I do owe it to someone (family member-paid with their credit card), and will withdraw the money to repay them in due course...so basically, I've spent the money without knowing it since I thought I had the budget to do so, but it's in my account at present...
I'm confused...
they made the error, I didn't realise and planned my expenditure based on it,
is there no way/ 'loop-hole' enabling me to now pay now?

Btw the company isn't likely to close down lol ;p it's a very big chain store...

Reply 11

dances_with_lamposts

you will probably have to pay it back, but they cant make you pay it all back at once. you can pay it back at a rate that you can afford. because its their fault that you were overpayed. :smile:

im in a similar situation - i was overpayed by about £600 in september and i havent payed it back yet. i will pay it back in £200 installments when ive got enough money to do that.

Reply 12

zef99

1 Economic Historian

possibly, if you've spent any money in your account, then you don't have to pay it back, because your original funds and the over paid funds have mixed, and so their original overpaid money can't be separated from yours.

wait and see what jacketpotato has to say, he'll clear this up.

Reply 13

Beef_Eater

How would a jacket potato know the answer?

Its just a type of lunch.

Reply 14

simeon

1 Economic Historian

I used to run my own company, and from my experience, you are legally obliged to pay it back, however the company should allow you to pay over time, not in one go.

This situation is usually covered in your Contract.

Reply 15

linkdapink

Your explanation of when you were being overpaid doesn't make sense to me! Sorry for being so confused. Anyway, there was a girl at work who was getting paid (mistakenly) £30 an hour for overtime, and they pulled her up on it (a year later) and said she had to pay it back, and she couldn't exactly say "I didn't realise that I shouldn't have been paid that much" because its a gross overpayment, so she has to pay it back.

And when I was at work, the opposite happened and my contract said I was getting paid £5.35 an hour, but they were only giving me £3.75, so they had to pay me extra in my next pay check. So basically it works both ways.

I think unless you HONESTLY didn't realise you were getting paid what you shouldn't have been (and from your explanation, it sounds like you weren't working, so I don't get why you think you should have been getting paid?) then you will have to pay it back.

Reply 16

Revd. Mike

I had this issue (well, a very very similar one) recently, and I checked with several legal sources. Yes, you will have to give it back, but you can arrange a reasonable repayment plan that suits both of you. There are a couple of circumstances in which you might not have to pay it back, but I can almost 100% guarantee that they will NOT apply to you.

Reply 17

0404343m

I was in exactly the same position as you with £550 from Scottish power nine months after leaving, and I managed to argue them around and didn't pay a penny. You have to show three things:

One) You didn't realise you were overpaid. I did this by saying I gave my legally required notice, they said they'd adjust my final pay, they did, its hardly my fault they didn't do it right.

Two) It wasn't my fault, it was theirs. Largely the same as above, I'd given notice, their pay dept are the ones to blame here and crucially, I had no reason to suspect I was overpaid.

Three) It'd cause you financial hardship to pay the money back- I said I was a full time student with no income, and given the above, insisting I hand over the cash was unfair.

Now, in these circumstances, if you make an offer to pay back the money at say £10 a month, they cannot refuse it. They also cannot call in debt collectors having refused a repayment offer- it wouldn't stand up in court. The guy that sits next to me at the football for the last 10 years is an employment lawyer, so he wrote them a letter saying I'd taken legal advice, stated the above, that I knew where I stood and they couldn't proceed with trying to collect the debt. They wrote me a reply saying they had dropped any attempts to pursue it. Happy days.

Reply 18

FallenPetal

1 Economic Historian

If you were under contract and they didn't make it void or send any clear indication of dismissal...

the money's yours! At least in paper anyway.

++Sorry for slow reply, doing chem revision atm.

Reply 19

Economic Historian 1

FallenPetal

If you were under contract and they didn't make it void or send any clear indication of dismissal...

the money's yours! At least in paper anyway.

++Sorry for slow reply, doing chem revision atm.