What is an overpayment and how does it occur?

Overpayments can involve overpayment of salary or allowances or over utilisation of leave.  They can arise through human error, processing delays or misinterpretation of your award or agreement provisions and when they do, the employer has an obligation under the Financial Management Act 2006 to account for public monies and recover overpayments made to you.

Examples of overpayments:

• Leave taken in excess of entitlement;
• Salary paid in error, eg when employee taking leave without pay;
• Periods of leave without pay;
• Incorrect or duplicate payments of allowances;
• Overtime processed in error;
• Higher duties allowance paid when it has ceased;
• Change to higher duties allowance, eg employee acting in a different position at a lower level than previously;
• Backpay related to promotion or reclassification calculated incorrectly;
• Higher duties allowance paid whilst taking purchased leave.