Gov’t saying I was overpaid and they want $$ back

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Generally when you owe the government money, the sooner you settle or come up with a payment plan the better.

The government can probably charge interest and penalties
and/or garnish future wages.

It’s not the govt he owes money (like taxes or fines).
It’s a govt agency which I think is different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Their fault, not yours, don’t pay

if it was a private employer, yes. Good luck doing that with the government

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Generally when you owe the government money, the sooner you settle or come up with a payment plan the better.

The government can probably charge interest and penalties
and/or garnish future wages.

It’s not the govt he owes money (like taxes or fines).
It’s a govt agency which I think is different.

he owes the treasury

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Their fault, not yours, don’t pay

if it was a private employer, yes. Good luck doing that with the government

Not op but is this just your guess or did you actually have any experience?
Please note this is not about taxes or fines!

[Anonymous]

It looks like you were overpaid about $4000 grand per year--This is an approximate given that you left halfway through 2020 and we don't know your start date.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Generally when you owe the government money, the sooner you settle or come up with a payment plan the better.

The government can probably charge interest and penalties
and/or garnish future wages.

It’s not the govt he owes money (like taxes or fines).
It’s a govt agency which I think is different.

he owes the treasury

No he owns his employer.
He needs to negotiate like I said, in writing, and keeping all the proof or mailing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Their fault, not yours, don’t pay

if it was a private employer, yes. Good luck doing that with the government

Not op but is this just your guess or did you actually have any experience?
Please note this is not about taxes or fines!

I'm sure every agency has similar procedures https://oha.ed.gov/salary-overpayment-matter/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Their fault, not yours, don’t pay

if it was a private employer, yes. Good luck doing that with the government

Not op but is this just your guess or did you actually have any experience?
Please note this is not about taxes or fines!

I'm sure every agency has similar procedures https://oha.ed.gov/salary-overpayment-matter/

From this link:
A debtor may request that part or all of an overpayment be waived where repayment would be inequitable if there is no evidence of fraud or misrepresentation in connection with the overpayment, and where granting the request is not contrary to the best interests of the United States or otherwise against equity and good conscience.

[Anonymous]

Do you have any proof of the salary that you were offered? Any pay stubs (preferably not one of the first two)?

For my last two jobs, I have the email that was sent confirming the job and the salary. And I keep my pay stubs along with other documents for 7 years,. If you have this, you can look at the gross pay on your paystubs and prorate that to the full year and compare to the salary stated in your letter. You will be able to determine if they did, in fact, overpay you. If not, then you have a case to contest the letter.

If they did overpay you, or you have no proof that they did not overpay you, then you will be responsible for paying the money back. The only way out of this is if you have proof that what you were paid agrees with what you were promised in a letter of employment. I guarantee that your former agency has copies of those documents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Their fault, not yours, don’t pay

if it was a private employer, yes. Good luck doing that with the government

Not op but is this just your guess or did you actually have any experience?
Please note this is not about taxes or fines!

I'm sure every agency has similar procedures https://oha.ed.gov/salary-overpayment-matter/

From this link:
A debtor may request that part or all of an overpayment be waived where repayment would be inequitable if there is no evidence of fraud or misrepresentation in connection with the overpayment, and where granting the request is not contrary to the best interests of the United States or otherwise against equity and good conscience.

Under 5 U.S.C. 5584(a)(2), the head of an Executive agency is authorized to waive an amount not more than $1,500 (per individual claim), while higher amounts must be waived by an "authorized official," which under § 5584(g)(2) is the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). (This higher-level waiver authority was previously held by the Comptroller General of the former General Accounting Office, now the Government Accountability Office (GAO). OMB was given this authority by section 103(d) of Public Law 104-316, October 19, 1996.)

https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/pay-administration/fact-sheets/waiving-overpayments/

nothing is ever easy

[Anonymous]

I was once a shift worker in the federal government in the early 2000s. They overpaid me for about 9months - around $1900. They took it out of future paychecks.

You. won't. win. this.

the best you can do is work out a payment plan. The government can take it out of your paycheck - it's that easy for the government to do this.

People who say 'wear them down' have no experience with this. This is the federal government - they have ways to get to your money. They have given you notice that you were overpaid and that they want that money back. You just need to find the least hurtful way to do that. Unless you can afford $16K all at once.

You better hope they don't charge interest on top of that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Three months ago, I left a job at a federal agency after 3 years of service. Last week, I received an email notification stating that I had been overpaid and was instructed to pay back the money ($16,000). Apparently, I had been entered into the system incorrectly when I onboarded in 2017, and this was corrected two weeks prior to my leaving (three months ago). Due to that error, I had been overpaid over my entire tenure and am now being asked to repay this amount.

Has anyone ever dealt with this before? Any and all advice welcome.

I haven't dealt with it to the extent that you are, but yes. In fact, I'm dealing with it right now.

You can appeal/fight this, and hopefully the email you received provided instructions on how to do that. The deck is stacked against you, but not totally. For some reason I can't open the PP's link to their agency policy, but basically the standard is did you know, or should you have known you were being overpaid.

When you say entered into the system incorrectly, what does that mean for what you saw on your pay stub? If you were hired as a GS 11, step 1, say and your pay stub came to you with the wrong grade and step, you're probably out of luck, but if it was an administrative error that you would have had no way to detect then make your case.

There are deadlines to appeal, so I would wait. Hopefully they've sent you a detailed breakdown. Check it carefully. On mine, there was a miscalculation and I ended up reducing what I owe by several hundred dollars.

[Anonymous]

Total pay is all over all kinds of documents that you get in federal employment - leave and earnings statements, benefits statements, SF-50s, etc. Did you really not know that you were being paid the wrong salary, or did you just think they wouldn't notice?

[Anonymous]

This happened to me in the govt. I had a temporary promotion that ended but they continued to pay me at the higher rate for a while. I’m still a govt employee though. They sent me a letter to let me know and then started taking it out of future paychecks (believe I could have paid it all at once).

I’m embarrassed that I didn’t notice the issue myself. It was not intentional but I certainly check my bank account more often now (and realize how privileged I am to not have to check it all the time).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Generally when you owe the government money, the sooner you settle or come up with a payment plan the better.

The government can probably charge interest and penalties
and/or garnish future wages.

It’s not the govt he owes money (like taxes or fines).
It’s a govt agency which I think is different.

he owes the treasury

No he owns his employer.
He needs to negotiate like I said, in writing, and keeping all the proof or mailing.

You have no idea what you are talking about. What works for the private sector doesn’t work for Feds. The OP will not win this battle, regardless of the number of letters they write if they were overpaid. Tax returns will be garnished, liens will be made. The Feds will get their money. OP needs to verify that they were overpaid and then arrange a payment plan.