What Happens when you are Double Paid

NETWizz

NETWizz

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Okay, let's say you work for a large company or Government...

That you had been getting pay stubs and direct deposit, but for one pay period somehow you got a check instead of a pay stub, AND you got a direct deposit, too.

Hence, you were over paid.

That this happened two years ago. That you could not get anyone to locate the error. That you sent a certified letter notifying your company's payroll.

Now, suddenly after an audit they want the money back? Any thoughts?
 
NETWizz said:
That you had been getting pay stubs and direct deposit, but for one pay period somehow you got a check instead of a pay stub, AND you got a direct deposit, too.

Hence, you were over paid.
Click to expand...
If you cashed the check sucks to be you. I would have returned the check by certified letter back then or at least never cashed it. .
 
You could just wait and see what pressure is put on you to repay and what threats, etc are made. What rights you have is going to depend on your local laws and regulations.

Similar thing happened to me, many, many years ago. I was employed by a small business at the time. About a month before Christmas, due to a banking error, myself and a few other staff member were paid twice one month. The bank eventually realised their mistake and asked for it back.

We all told the bank that we thought it was our Christmas bonus and we'd already spent it. I believe we may have been within our rights to refuse to repay it but the bank put pressure on the company we worked for, so we agreed to repay, but on our terms. I think we all paid it back at something like £10 per month. We eventually repaid all of it but it took years so we effectively all got interest free loans.
 
Had something similar happen after leaving an employer many years ago. In the end, I knew it was an error and was required to return the money. You apparently made a good-faith effort to inform them of the error, but yeah, you should have sent the check back because you knew at the time it was an over-payment. Of course you could have framed it and hung it on the wall too. Yeah, the money has to go back.
 
This happens a lot and if you are in located the US there are rules the employer must follow. Some states have their own set of rules.

1. The money is not yours and you have to pay it back.
2. The employer can not just take it back without your permission using a paycheck check deduction or any other means.
3. You have the right to pay it back over time via a paycheck deduction or you can pay it all at once.
4. If you are no longer working for that employer then this is something I have no experience with, but I do know you still must pay it back.

I am not an Attorney and my comments are based on my personal experience in the state of California.
 
Finders Keepers only works on the playground. Anything that does not legally belong to you a person cannot keep. The clerk at a store gives you too much change, it's theft. Find someone's wallet, it's theft. Overpaid. It is theft and you can be arrested for it in some cases. Federal law allows the employer to take back pay in the form of wage deductions in FULL. Not anything the employee can do about it. Some states have better rules but most do not.

http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/can-employer-deduct-previous-overpayment-paycheck.html

If you can work out an agreement with your employer then get it IN WRITING. But most likely you are screwed.
 
Mercenary has it right. We overpaid aka f*cked up a payroll sometime back. Several hourly employees got approx 25K extra in a single paycheck. They were good about letting it be known but it took accounting almost 6 months to find and correct the problem. Once down to root cause the employees were allowed to have payroll deductions of about 1% per paycheck until it was returned in total. They did earn 6 months interest on that 25K though. Company paid for accountants for them come tax time as well. Depending on where you are located though there is a limited time for the company to make any claim to be paid back.
 
Resolved it.

Turns out this happened to over 30 people. I explained that I was just going to be up-front and honest, let them know the person before was negligent, provided copies of the certified mail etc. where I offered to give it back and where no acceptance or answer was provided hence technically I have a strong argument that I could reasonably expect to not have to repay it years later. I explained that this also cost me added time and expenses, travel, certified mail, etc. and asked what their actual goal for recovery is percentage wise overall for the 30 people because obviously you are NOT going to recovery every dollar from everyone... That if we spare each other the legal costs and they meet me half-way I will willingly pay back a portion but not higher than their overall recovery.

They indicated that they are shooting for 50% overall, so I offered 50% and we agreed on those figures. We agreed it would be a one-time negative bonus, so it could be re-paid with before-tax money. Hence, my estimated paycheck for May 1st is now under $2000 :-( ... but it will be back to normal May 16th
 
Well, glad it worked out for you. I don't really get it though.

You said you offered to give it back and sent certified mail. But then they didn't reply, so you just cashed it? This is where I feel like there's more to the story. Like I would hope you tried more than once. I'd pretty much be bugging them every day. "Hey, I've got money that is NOT mine, you've made a mistake." "Hey, didn't hear from you. I'm not a bank, this isn't mine." Hell, if I couldn't get in touch I'd either walk it into the place or send it as part of that certified mail with explanation.
 
AlexanderCS said:
Well, glad it worked out for you. I don't really get it though.

You said you offered to give it back and sent certified mail. But then they didn't reply, so you just cashed it? This is where I feel like there's more to the story. Like I would hope you tried more than once. I'd pretty much be bugging them every day. "Hey, I've got money that is NOT mine, you've made a mistake." "Hey, didn't hear from you. I'm not a bank, this isn't mine." Hell, if I couldn't get in touch I'd either walk it into the place or send it as part of that certified mail with explanation.
Click to expand...
Maybe he got the check first, assumed that his first direct deposit wasn't going to be until the next pay period, so cashed it. Then the direct deposit came after the check was cashed.

Man some of you guys have no faith in people lol.
 
I know of someone where something like this happened to but for unemployment. They filled everything out correctly, gov, cut them a check for their unemployment during that time. They ended up finding a new job and just recently got a notification that they were over paid for their unemployment. What I think happened is their previous employer misreported something. Shitty thing is, its hard to say no or fight that since you now have an issue with gov agencies. They basically can just garnish your wages even if you dont agree with why. They ended up having to setup a payment plan though to repay what they were overpaid. Sucks especially when you do everything right on your end and when you are already hurting from being laid-off.
 
I apologize if it came across that way. It's not that I don't have faith, it just appears that there's missing info that makes it sound more callous than it likely was.

From what I've seen of NETWizz, he's a helpful guy. I'm sure he took all steps to make sure they knew and had opportunity to take it back. Off day for me, I didn't mean to make it seem like I was calling someone's character into question. Again, apologies everyone.
 
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