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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$16k? You knew you were getting paid extra. Happy you got caught!

$16k over 3 years. That's like 5 grand a year. That's about $200 gross per pay check. I'd never notice that.

I would never either - especially as a fed you have SO much taken out of your paycheck and frankly some of it is hard to track and figure out like FERS and all sorts of things. It would probably be less than 200 each paycheck after taxes. I'm sorry op. I agree with others though you will have to pay it back, it's just the way it is. If it makes you feel better - we do the same thing to SNAP participants when we accidentally overpay them. So impoverished people are forced to pay back government errors too, it SUCKS.

My mom was overpaid for her as benefits and they told her they would claw it back. She got around it somehow, but how are you going after a disabled, low income, 75 year old for your mistake!?

You don’t want to deal with Uncle Sam the bill collector. Death might be the only way.

[Anonymous]

"Tough turkey, I'll pay you in Beef Jerky."

[Anonymous]

If you do have to pay it back, make sure you file amended returns. You can get the taxes you paid on that income refunded.

[Anonymous]

If your offer letter, SF-50 and E&L statements all had the correct grade/step and annual salary then I could understand how the extra pay went unnoticed. If they did not match, you should have noticed and should arrange a payment plan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not at a federal but a private sector job.
They paid for something an employee received (think along the lines of education) which he was supposed to pay back if he left the job before a certain date. He even signed a paper to that effect.
Well lo and behold he left immediately after the service was provided, and they went after him. He started writing them letters, asking for detailed invoices, sending links to laws saying it wasn’t lawful to request the refund, asking for discounts due to his performance reviews and the value he brought to the company etc.
At some point they just stopped responding. It’s been a couple years now and his credit isn’t affected. He was prepared to fight it in small claims court if they ever turned it over to collection.
The amount was around $12k.

I think the strategy of sending them letters and wearing them out can work. Ask them whose mistake it was; who was responsible for the oversight of the employment/hr records etc etc.
I think it will look bad if they turn it over to collection. Then you go to small claims court and it will be too costly and bad for their reputation to fight it.

How do you live with that conscience though 🤔 not worth the $12k

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$16k? You knew you were getting paid extra. Happy you got caught!

$16k over 3 years. That's like 5 grand a year. That's about $200 gross per pay check. I'd never notice that.

Having worked for the feds, I agree. There is all sorts of stuff taken out of your paycheck and its hard to tell. This thread is making me think I should have paid closer attention to make sure I wasnt being UNDERpaid.

LOL I have not looked at my pay statements for several years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your offer letter, SF-50 and E&L statements all had the correct grade/step and annual salary then I could understand how the extra pay went unnoticed. If they did not match, you should have noticed and should arrange a payment plan.

You must be in accounting. I am not that sensitive to numbers, and I always assume the system is correct. After reading the bad experiences on this thread, I think I will look at mine tomorrow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
How do you live with that conscience though 🤔 not worth the $12k

Stop being the drama queen. She might not even have noticed.

Last week I was looking at my pay statements to see accrued PTO hours, and noticed that I had a raise I forgot. Pleasant surprise!

[Anonymous]

It’s not your money. Hard facts, but true. If someone accidentally left the keys to a $16,000 car on your desk, would you just drive it off? And then fight the cops when they came to collect it? No, because it’s just not yours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

+1. OP I'm a former fed. My time and attendance was incorrectly entered for a period of time. They came after me for the overage almost 5 years later. I had the right to demand the evidence that showed I was overpaid. It took them a few months to produced the documents. Once they did so, I was given a deadline to pay. I don't think the private sector posters on here understand how the federal government works.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your offer letter, SF-50 and E&L statements all had the correct grade/step and annual salary then I could understand how the extra pay went unnoticed. If they did not match, you should have noticed and should arrange a payment plan.

You must be in accounting. I am not that sensitive to numbers, and I always assume the system is correct. After reading the bad experiences on this thread, I think I will look at mine tomorrow.

Life must be nice if you don’t need to check or bother remembering your salary. I always check the initial paycheck after one federal job changed my health insurance and TSP contributions without my authorization, and I verify promotions/step increases. In between I can look at the amount deposited in my bank account to see if it changes.

[Anonymous]

Nothing but sympathy. I learned to watch my pay statements like a hawk because my overseas entitlements change so frequently. After my most recent PCS back to DC, it took several months for my hardship differential to stop. I emailed HR multiple times about it, knowing that I would be expected to pay it back. It took MONTHS for payroll to get it right. And then they were like, you must pay this back immediately. I'd kept the overpayment in a savings account so was ready to return it in a lump sum, but it was still an incredibly annoying process. Like, how come the government got all the time it wanted to get its accounting right, and I had mere days to correct its mistake before my wages would be garnished? I would have been in for a world of hurt had I not noticed and planned accordingly. And to you naysayers, it's really easy not to notice when you do direct deposit and have a lot of payroll deductions (my take-home is generally about 40% of my actual gross) and bills on autopay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not at a federal but a private sector job.
They paid for something an employee received (think along the lines of education) which he was supposed to pay back if he left the job before a certain date. He even signed a paper to that effect.
Well lo and behold he left immediately after the service was provided, and they went after him. He started writing them letters, asking for detailed invoices, sending links to laws saying it wasn’t lawful to request the refund, asking for discounts due to his performance reviews and the value he brought to the company etc.
At some point they just stopped responding. It’s been a couple years now and his credit isn’t affected. He was prepared to fight it in small claims court if they ever turned it over to collection.
The amount was around $12k.

I think the strategy of sending them letters and wearing them out can work. Ask them whose mistake it was; who was responsible for the oversight of the employment/hr records etc etc.
I think it will look bad if they turn it over to collection. Then you go to small claims court and it will be too costly and bad for their reputation to fight it.

I don't think the reputational effects are going to come into play when the government is the employer; the federal government regularly goes after repayment from little old ladies and disabled people when it overpays them social security due to the government's own error.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not at a federal but a private sector job.
They paid for something an employee received (think along the lines of education) which he was supposed to pay back if he left the job before a certain date. He even signed a paper to that effect.
Well lo and behold he left immediately after the service was provided, and they went after him. He started writing them letters, asking for detailed invoices, sending links to laws saying it wasn’t lawful to request the refund, asking for discounts due to his performance reviews and the value he brought to the company etc.
At some point they just stopped responding. It’s been a couple years now and his credit isn’t affected. He was prepared to fight it in small claims court if they ever turned it over to collection.
The amount was around $12k.

I think the strategy of sending them letters and wearing them out can work. Ask them whose mistake it was; who was responsible for the oversight of the employment/hr records etc etc.
I think it will look bad if they turn it over to collection. Then you go to small claims court and it will be too costly and bad for their reputation to fight it.

I don't think the reputational effects are going to come into play when the government is the employer; the federal government regularly goes after repayment from little old ladies and disabled people when it overpays them social security due to the government's own error.

And, would the federal government even go into small claims court? Wouldn't it just file in federal court from the get go? It's such an easy case for the government - the material of summary judgment motions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How does your pay stubs from 2017 tie out to your letter of agreement when you started the job?

Were you overpaid?

If you were in fact overpaid come up with a payment plan.

+1
You didn't notice your salary was higher?