Paycheque overpaid?

[chesham]

If you are overpaid, legally the money is not yours....unless 6 years has passed and they have made no attempt to contact you or take steps to claim it back, then the debt is defined as statute barred, meaning they cannot use any legal means to get it back, so effectively sweet fa can be done about it. However, there were cases in the US and some in the UK in which the courts awarded judgements to the employers as the employee has an obligation to repay the money. Same applies when banks deposit too much into your account.

[chesham]

. An employee need not pay back the overpayment if they can prove to a court that they did not know nor could they have reasonably been expected to have known of the overpayment.

 

This defence is really in the minority, as it could be said that if they have been paid the same amount regularly previously, it would have been notice that more money had been paid than normal, therefore highlighting the issue (eliminating the defence of not knowing). The defence of not reasonably being expected to have known of the overpayment is a legal mystery, and I have no idea how you could build a defence on this at all!

 

On another note, I was overpaid once on a final pay packet, but did not know it at the time. Between the time of my final pay and my ex employer discovering it, I had been through the bankruptcy and the debt was listed as part of my 'estate' as well as my personal debts, therefore statute barred!