Law Queries

After checking my payslip for the first time in several months I have realised that I may have been overpaid. I have been paid for a 37-hour week but in fact work 34 hours. I had not noticed anything wrong mainly because I had also had a pay rise and a new bonus. If I tell my employers will they make me pay it back?

Normally you have to pay back any money overpaid, although employers should accept arrangements to recoup over a reasonable period of time. However, if you meet the following three tests you will not be obliged to pay it back. These are that you:

* were led to believe that you were entitled to the money;

* genuinely believed the money was due to you; and

* therefore spent it

* More information: Kleinwort Benson v Lincoln City Council [1998] 3 Weekly Law Reports 1095