Overpayment of salary

BrookieD

Hi Guys
Quick Question, my wife got overpaid last month, she spotted it right away informed them same day and its taken 3 weeks for them to get back to her. They say they may need to deduct the over payment at next pay cycle in one hit.

Can she refuse and have it come out over next x number months? she is not refusing at all but is was there cock up, she has been 100% honest but that hit will hurt monthly bills etc..

Options and advice and thanks in advance

Batgurl

How will it hurt monthly bills?

If she spotted the overpayment straight away, she couldn't have spent any of the money as she knew it wasn't hers.

So if they are taking it out of next payroll she can just use the untouched overpayment that is still in her account to make up the shortage.

the_syco

How much of the extra pay was taken by the taxman?

baby and crumble

They'd need to ensure that the extra money she was paid didn't make her pay more in tax. If it did then they need to take that into account.

whippet

Sounds like the money was spent in anticipation of either the mistake not being corrected or the misguided belief that the repayment could be done on credit.

Unfortunately .. It seems your wife stupidly spent money that wasn't hers and now must pay it back

toadfly

baby and crumble wrote: »

They'd need to ensure that the extra money she was paid didn't make her pay more in tax. If it did then they need to take that into account.

As long as she is on cumulative basis (ie not week 1) it wont any difference as her gross pay will balance out over the two months.

Squatman

sounds like something she should ask her employers, :pac:

Flatzie_poo

BrookieD wrote: »

Can she refuse and have it come out over next x number months? she is not refusing at all but is was there cock up, she has been 100% honest but that hit will hurt monthly bills etc..

Excluding the obvious issue she spent the money whilst knowing there was a "cock up," she should approach them and ask.

She can't refuse - they're not obliged to help her, but may do it out of goodwill.

BrookieD

whippet wrote: »

Sounds like the money was spent in anticipation of either the mistake not being corrected or the misguided belief that the repayment could be done on credit.

Unfortunately .. It seems your wife stupidly spent money that wasn't hers and now must pay it back

No the money was not spent.. thanks for the input though

BrookieD

Flatzie_poo wrote: »

Excluding the obvious issue she spent the money whilst knowing there was a "cock up," she should approach them and ask.

She can't refuse - they're not obliged to help her, but may do it out of goodwill.

No issue in paying back the monies at all. again money was not spent but its there cock up spotted by the good lady wife.

Not sure on tax though.. will need to look at that

BrookieD

whippet wrote: »

Sounds like the money was spent in anticipation of either the mistake not being corrected or the misguided belief that the repayment could be done on credit.

Unfortunately .. It seems your wife stupidly spent money that wasn't hers and now must pay it back

No she did not... and refrain from calling my wife stupid

xabi

You say she didn't spend the money, how will it hurt your monthly bills?

godtabh

If the money isnt spent. Give it back. Simple really. Tax will sort itself out by the end of the year. If you are worried get a balancing statement.

Why make such a big deal of it?

whippet

BrookieD wrote: »

No she did not... and refrain from calling my wife stupid

I didn't call her stupid .. I said that she may have stupidly spent the money.

Anyway that is irrelevant as you said that she didn't touch the money; however, somewhat confused as to how that would affect your monthly household budget and bills.

If the money is still in the account giving it back shouldn't be an issue, so i'm not too sure as to why you would want / expect to pay it back monthly.

FYI .. the optics of it would look terrible from a company point of view, if your wife let the company know that she received the overpayment and then looked to pay it back in instalments ... most reasonable people would assume that she spent them money in the full knowledge that it was company money and hoped for the best

Jim2007

BrookieD wrote: »

Can she refuse and have it come out over next x number months? she is not refusing at all but is was there cock up, she has been 100% honest but that hit will hurt monthly bills etc..

Why should it hit your bills, it was just a wages advance one month over another??? Had it happened several months ago and was only discovered now the employer it would be a different thing...

BrookieD

it hits the bills as she works a very odd shift pattern with no set hours on a week to week, with a full back month in pay - All work in Jan gets paid end of March - she is a relief staff care assistant for a care home - so yes without trying it will hit bills and requires planning

Supercell

How does this work from a tax perspective? Say she was paid 500 extra overall but was taxed ~250 on that, do they take 500 off her next pay cycle even though she only got ~€250 extra into her account?

SteelyDanJalapeno

If nobody has spent the money, use that for bills

xabi

BrookieD wrote: »

it hits the bills as she works a very odd shift pattern with no set hours on a week to week, with a full back month in pay - All work in Jan gets paid end of March - she is a relief staff care assistant for a care home - so yes without trying it will hit bills and requires planning

I still cant understand how it hits the bills. what if she hadn't noticed the extra payment was there? She shouldn't have got the payment in the first place so it seems your bills were in trouble regardless this month.

BrookieD

no the bills were not in trouble - I pay all household bills, she tackles car and shopping etc...
she earns enough each month with out being hit heavily in tax. Once past 80 hours she gets slammed for tax. This slammed her and the outcome was crap, - very little extra even though it equates to 22hrs over paid this pushed her in 100+ hours. If they take everything back this m onth due to a po0r Aug roaster this leaves her even worse of which she was not planning for.

either way they messed up and where we would have managed now it makes things very very tight

BrookieD

no the bills were not in trouble - I pay all household bills, she tackles car and shopping etc...
she earns enough each month with out being hit heavily in tax. Once past 80 hours she gets slammed for tax. This slammed her and the outcome was crap, - very little extra even though it equates to 22hrs over paid this pushed her in 100+ hours. If they take everything back this m onth due to a po0r Aug roaster this leaves her even worse of which she was not planning for.

either way they messed up and where we would have managed now it makes things very very tight

All in all

If she is taxed on a cumulative basis, she will receive the same nett pay over the 2 months reagrdless of the spread of hours over the 2 months.

If she is on a week1/emergency basis she will take a hit alright.

All in all

If she is taxed on a cumulative basis, she will receive the same nett pay over the 2 months reagrdless of the spread of hours over the 2 months.

If she is on a week1/emergency basis she will take a hit alright.

Greenmachine

BrookieD wrote: »

no the bills were not in trouble - I pay all household bills, she tackles car and shopping etc...
she earns enough each month with out being hit heavily in tax. Once past 80 hours she gets slammed for tax. This slammed her and the outcome was crap, - very little extra even though it equates to 22hrs over paid this pushed her in 100+ hours. If they take everything back this m onth due to a po0r Aug roaster this leaves her even worse of which she was not planning for.

either way they messed up and where we would have managed now it makes things very very tight

Her cumulative PAYE will adjust itself. How many hours was she over paid. Did it put her salary for that period into a higher PRSI or USC band, that is the only way, I can recall being impacted by overpayment as deductions for these seem to calculated for each pay period instead of cumulatively but the only employer I ever had issue with for things like this with, I was employed with in the mid to late 90's.

walshb

Surely the employer just works out what she should have been paid (taking into account taxes and charges) vs. what she was paid and then take the difference. Either way, if she spotted the error straight away I don't see how she should be affected too much as regards bills and outgoings on her part. It should be a simple returning of the overpaid money in one act!

pow wow

Many employers will have a hardship clause, i.e. if taking the overpayment back in one swoop would cause undue hardship they may look at taking it back bit by bit over a number of salary cycles. That most usually comes into play where an employee was off sick or where the employee couldn't reasonably have known it was an overpayment...and spent it.

As your wife doesn't fall into either category I wouldn't fancy her chances, but she could approach her employer with an alternative proposal. The worst they can say is no.

davo10

Op as others have stated, tax and deductions balance irrespective of over payment so your partner will not be at a loss. Also, I can't see how this would effect your bills in any way, certainly if she was underpaid it would have a huge effect but your insistence that her being paid over what she was entitled too has an effect on bills is baffling. If the money has not been spent, pay it back immediately, your wife is no worse off than she should be. At best they will deduct it anyway from future payslips but at worst they will do that plus "mark" your wife's card. The money is not yours too keep irrespective of the employers mistake and as it is still in your bank account, there is no legal not moral justification for hanging onto to it for any longer than it takes to transfer it.

FrStone

It won't affect her PAYE and USC, however it could possibly affect PRSI if you earn under €352 a week you pay no PRSI. If you earn anything over this you do pay PRSI on the whole amount, essentially a person warning €353 will come out with a lower net pay than a person earning €351. PRSI is non refundable. You will need to check this with your wife's employer.

The company will only take back the net amount your wife got extra, the rest will come by reducing the cumulative taxes your wife paid.

If you still want it repaid in instalments, say it to the payroll dept, it would be very rare for a payroll dept to refuse the request.