Overpayment recovery process

Roles and responsibilities

There are several stakeholders involved in overpayment recovery: 

  • an employee or ex-employee who has been overpaid  
  • a manager or head teacher of an employee who has been overpaid 
  • senior managers  
  • our head of finance 
  • human resources (HR), including:
    • the payroll manager 
    • the exchequer services manager 
    • credit control 

Managers can delegate actions to another suitable person.  

Employee or ex-employee 

Employees should: 

  • tell their manager or head teacher straight away if they have been overpaid 
  • show honesty and integrity as per the code of conduct 
  • make every effort to repay the full amount immediately 

If this will cause financial hardship, then we may agree to payment by instalments. It is important to keep track of personal circumstances in case a change allows the employee to repay the debt sooner.  

Manager or head teacher 

Payroll will notify the manager or head teacher of an overpayment at the same time as the employee or former employee. They should cooperate in recovering the money regardless of how the overpayment happened.   When an issue is identified the manager should monitor their budget to ensure there are no more overpayments. 

When managers or head teachers receive formal notice of an employee leaving, they should: 

  • complete a leaver's form 
  • submit the form no later than the 2nd of the month that the employee will leave 

This will stop any overpayments to employees who are leaving.