Told I've been overpaid

They made a mistake. Are you not allowing them to put it right? If you'd made a mistake would you expect the 'victim' to be obdurate?

If a bank paid you someone else's money would you expect to keep it?

Mind you, if this mistake causes you serious financial problems I would hope the employers would at least lean in your direction.

Rob Graham

In normal circumstances, you'd be quite right. A mere *administrative* mistake such as a bank giving money to the wrong person, or an employer overpaying someone as a result of an error in arithmetic, should usually just be corrected immediately, since the recipient should not have expected the extra money anyway.

This case does seem a little different, though. Here the chap was told in advance that he was going to get a bonus, and then he was in fact given it. It was *not* a simple mistake, but a serious one.

You can't just go and tell someone how marvellous they've been and to expect a reward, and then give them the reward, and later tell them you've made a mistake and they're not really as marvellous as all that and could they give back the reward please.

I think in *this* case, unusually, in the interest of good staff relations, the employer should write off the loss and consider it "punishment" for having made this serious mistake [which presumably was that they really meant to reward a different employee, which of course they should still do], and to consider themselves lucky if the OP generously agrees to give back *part of* the dosh.

"Rob graham" wrote

That's a little unfair, isn't it? Suppose you made a mistake by telling someone you'd pay them X for doing something (although you meant x), the other person does it & you pay them X, then later you say "sorry, I only meant x -- give me the extra back!" Would you expect them to happily pay you back, when you had initially told them you'd pay them the full X for the service?

Note the OP received a letter from their employer beforehand ("a few weeks before") telling them of the increase in pay. What if they only continued doing the extra work on the basis that the letter was correct?

"Rob graham" wrote

If the payment came out of the blue and was unexpected, then of course not. But isn't it a bit different if the bank said you'd be getting it in return for something you did, and you did it ... ?

That's different as you have formed a contract with that person to do the work for that amount.

Yes, but didn't the letter from the OP's employer effectively *amend* their existing employment contract? That makes it very much the same...

An interesting and potentally complex issue which hasn't as yet been at all adequately answered - but what's new !!

Generally, a person making a payment under mistake of fact may be estopped from pursuing recovery of the overpayment. For this to happen, three conditions must be satisfied. First, that the payer (the employer) in some way represented the payment was actually due to the employee. Secondly, the payee must show that this inaccurate information led him to believe he was entitled to the money. Thirdly, the payee must show that because of the mistake, he changed his position in reliance upon the payment so as to make it inequitable for him to repay the money (Chitty on Contracts, 25th Edition, para 1961). This may well be the case with you and you might well politely warn them to avoid deducting the overpayment on these grounds.

Unless your contract of employment specifically gives the employer the right to deduct from your pay any overpayments made in error your employer cannot lawfully do so and it's just a civil debt and possibly not enforceable for the above reasons.

But if your contract does - and many do - it's much more complex but still probably worth trying to rely on the above, although your case would be much weaker.

No it didn't, or at least the OP didn't quite make clear what it was to have been for. My impression was that it was not the case that all future work was to receive a higher rate of pay, but that this was to have been a one-off gratuity of some kind.

So there may well not be a *contractual* obligation, but nevertheless if someone tells you you're to receive a "gift", and that gift is then in fact given, it doesn't seem right for them subsequently to want to retract it and say "oops, we actually meant the gift to go to someone else". Even if there are two employees with the same name, it's not the sort of mistake the company should expect to be able to get out of unscathed.

Well to explain further:

I am a teacher in a school and obviously paid as such. I do training for students for which the school pays me a fee per student for training them (not part of my contract) I usually get the payment twice a year, in February and July.

In early February I received a letter saying that I would receive the payment (it was higher than normal (about £400) but I just thought that the rates had gone up). The payment was added to my normal salary in February.

Yesterday I am told that the payment was in error (due to a mis payment to the school from the University from which the students come and that other staff should have received a proportion of the payment)

I have been informed that my payment due for July will not be forthcoming (even though I am doing the extra work!) as the school needs to recoup the overpayment? I was however told that the extra payment made in February was 'legally mine'!!! So if it is 'legally mine' then why are they trying to recoup it?

So should I seek further advice on this matter??

TM

Can't mean what? Physically impossible, contrary to some law or right or merely a naughty thing to do?

Tony

On the face of it it appears to be a simple error which you will have to repay.

I presume a pay rate was agreed prior to you doing the work and that they mistakenly paid you above this rate. e.g you agreed a fee per student and they mistakenly assumed you had trained more students than you had.

If you had been diligent you could have noticed the mistake and would have pointed it out to them.

This does not appear to be a case of the employer promising you a higher amount in order to misleadingly entice you into doing the work. If this had been the case it would have been fair for you to keep the money.

Well it's clearly not physically impossible, but I would say it's more than just naughty. It's downright dishonourable, and I'd have thought it would also be "contrary to some law".

A non-contractual gratuitous reward accepted in good faith amounts to an unconditional gift. It seems inconceivable that there should be a right to reverse such a gift, other than perhaps to deduct it from a possible future unconditional gift, but certainly not from any future contractual pay.

Of course it has meanwhile transpired that it *was* contractual, so this scenario does not apply.

I'm not sure what you would gain however as you haven't actually been fiddled out of anything.

I see where you are coming from and I sympathise.

Look at it this way - they have paid you in advance for work you have yet to do in July. As long as you double check and keep on top of them in terms of what you are actually paid then you are no worse off. In fact - you've been paid in advance.

If they make these sorts of c*ck-ups then I would be checking all your payments in future.

You could perhaps wait until just before you are due to take a class, and then tell them that you will not be able to take the class after all as you have just discovered that your professional insurance does not cover you when undertaking unpaid teaching work.

Or write to the parents of the students explaining that your school is no longer willing to pay you for teaching, and ask the parents for a fee to cover your professional costs.

I would advise against these courses of action. Not only is it untrue that he has not been paid, but the above actions would appear to provoke and escalate the situation rather than try and resolve it. It's also using the students and parents as unwitting pawns in this negative escalation.

I would suggest talking. Arrange a meeting with the head of the school and reiterate the sequence of events. Seek clarification on the letter and the subsequent payment. See if the head can see the situation from your point of view. Ultimately see if you can come to agreement and an arrangement which suits both parties. I'm sure this approach will have a far more speedy and positive result.

Of course it's blady legal!

If your employer discovers they have overpaid you they are entitled to recover that overpayment. Choosing to do so by asking you to do extra training work in lieu of it is probably the fairest way for them to recover it rather than simply deducting it from your next salry payment or demanding that you summarily repay it.

The letter may have been a mistake on their part. You are not entitled to keep an overpayment as a result of an error made by your employer. You need to work out for yourself whether you have been overpaid or not.

I think, on reflection, that my initial reaction was a bit harsh, albeit we are still not sure of all the actual issues. I think I suffered from a knee-jerk reaction to the sort of mindset that seems so common nowadays where it's always someone else's fault, and can I have my money back please. One instance of this is in a recent post where the OP thinks he should get refunded the 100 late return fine he got when he eventually sends in his tax return. Another is a case locally to me where an individual signed up to a joint 'jolly' and paid the 10 deposit, then decided he couldn't come after all and wanted the deposit back. Just what do people think a deposit is?

However, I'm now having a rant.

Rob