Deal with an accidental overpayment made to an employee who has since left the organisation

Key points

• An employer may make an accidental overpayment to an employee in relation to, for example, their basic pay, commission or expenses. This is not unusual where the employer operates a computerised payroll, or it could be the result of a clerical error.
• The employer should act quickly on discovering an overpayment to an employee who has since left the organisation; it may be possible to recover the overpayment from the employee's final wages.
• If the employer cannot recover the amount from the employee's final wages, it can ask the employee to repay it. If this fails, it should consider whether or not to bring a court claim to recover the overpayment.

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