HRPOL28 Overpayments Policy and Procedure V7 by Provide Community

Overpayments Policy and Procedure

Version: V7

Ratified by:

Staff Partnership Forum, People & Culture Steering Group

Date ratified: 01/08/2023

Job Title of author:

Reviewed by Committee or Expert Group

Interim Head of People Services

Staff Partnership Forum and People & Culture Steering Group

Equality Impact Assessed by: People Directorate

1. Introduction

1.1

1.2

Provide aims to deliver high quality and safe services and it recognises that this commitment to quality and safety must be reflected in the work and conduct of all its employees.

Provide is required to ensure that employees are paid correctly at all times. If an overpayment of salary or any other overpayment of public funds occurs for any reason, Provide will recover the overpayment from the employee. Similarly Provide will take steps to correct any underpayment of salary or any other payment to which an employee is entitled.

1.3 If an overpayment is considered to have been brought about fraudulently then the matter will be reported to the Group Chief Finance Officer and the Counter Fraud Team for review and possible criminal investigation. Similarly, if it is suspected that an individual has knowingly failed to disclose an overpayment and has retained the monies, this will also be reported to the Group Chief Finance Officer and Counter Fraud team as a suspicion of theft

2. Scope

2.1 This procedure applies to all employees within the Provide Group of Companies, including medical staff, and workers of the Provide Group of Companies. It does not cover agency workers or contractors.

3. Key Principles

3.1 The purpose of this procedure is to ensure that action taken when dealing with such matters is consistent throughout Provide.

Due regard has been given to relevant practice and employment law issues in particular the Employments Rights Act 1996, the Wages Act 1986 and the Theft Act 1968 and the Fraud Act 2006.

4. Key Responsibilities

4.1 Employees

All Employees have responsibility to remain aware of their position and obligations under their contractual terms of employment.

All employees have a responsibility for checking their electronic pay slip and bank accounts and to advise their Line Manager, Payroll or the People Directorate Business Partners if they have been overpaid/underpaid by any amount.

Upon receipt of communication from Provide or one of Provide’s Payroll partners, setting out the facts about an overpayment if an employee wish to change the repayment recommendation they must complete an overpayment form (Appendix 1). (NB an overpayment of less than 10% of pay will be automatically reclaimed the following month).

If employees are aware of an overpayment and do not receive a letter from Provide or one of Provide’s Payroll Partners it is their responsibility to contact the People Directorate to inform them. Failure to declare an obvious overpayment may be construed to be an offence of fraud and will be referred to the Counter Fraud team for criminal investigation, as appropriate. This may also result in formal disciplinary action and full recover/civil recovery

4.2 Managers

Managers are responsible for raising awareness of this policy within their own business units and will highlight changes to their teams at meetings.

All managers with responsibility for budgets have a duty to review all salaries and wages charged to their cost centre and alert payroll and finance of any anomalies and suspected overpayments. An overpayment of salary may occur due to the late submission or recording of an employee’s end date of employment or termination of employment.

Budget Holders should liaise with the employee, agree a repayment schedule and countersign the overpayments form that the employee has completed (Appendix 1). Budget holders can agree a re-payment schedule within the scope of this policy e.g. repayments made over the period in which the overpayment occurred, or before the end of the financial year or, in cases of hardship, over a 12-month period that extends beyond the end of the current financial year.

To avoid overpayment and a requirement to progress debt recovery once an employee has left managers must ensure that the notification of a termination of employment is progressed via a P4 form as soon as the employee hands in their notice. Late P4 submission which lead to overpayments will be monitored.

A People Directorate Business Partner will manage the completion of the P4 forms for any other situation other than resignation.

4.3 Chief Officers

All Chief Officers are responsible for identifying and ensuring the development of documents relevant to their area of responsibility. The Group Chief People Officer is accountable to the Group Chief Executive and the Provide Board for ensuring this policy is implemented and associated documents become active documents within Provide Group of Companies

Chief Officers will ensure that this policy is appropriately consulted upon and that all resource implications are highlighted and funding identified. They will ensure that their Senior Managers are informed of progress.

The Group Chief Finance Officer is required to authorise any losses arising to overpayments in accordance with Provide’s Standing Financial Instructions (SFI’s) and Standing Orders (SO’s). These losses must also be reported to the Audit Committee.

The Group Chief Finance Officer will implement investigations into all overpayments that may be considered fraudulent.

4.4

Group Chief Executive

The Group Chief Executive has overall responsibility for the strategic and operational management of Provide Group of Companies which includes ensuring that this policy & associated documents comply with all legal and statutory requirements.

4.5 The Provide Board

The Provide Board is responsible for setting the strategic context in which organisational documents are developed, and for ensuring the formal review and approval of documents takes place.

4.6 People Services/Payroll partners have the responsibility for ensuring that overpayments of over 10% are highlighted and communicated to the People Directorate, Finance and the employees in writing within the pay period that the overpayment was identified.

4.7 The People Directorate are responsible for ensuring that appropriate systems exist for ensuring that all employees who are subject to payroll discrepancies are dealt with in a fair and equitable manner and in accordance with current employment legislation and good practice. Budget Holders may seek advice regarding the implementation of this policy from the People Directorate Team

4.8 The Finance Team/Payroll Services Accounts Payable team are responsible for raising invoices where required for all salary overpayments in Provide’s ledger and monitoring collection of these amounts.

5. Procedure / Implementation

5.1 Failure to Disclose a Salary Overpayment or Any Other Payment made to Employees

All employees have a responsibility for checking each electronic pay slip and to advise their Line Manager, Payroll or People Directorate Business Partners if they have been overpaid by any amount as soon as practical on discovery of the overpayment. Failure to do so may result in disciplinary action and referral to the Group Chief Finance Officer if the employee was aware of an overpayment but failed to report it within a reasonable timeframe. The Group Chief Finance Officer will decide whether an investigation will be carried out that may culminate in criminal proceedings and/or disciplinary action being commenced / taken against an employee in the event of a failure to disclose an overpayment.

All employees are advised that they are bound by explicit contractual terms and that in the event of any overpayment of salary, expenses or other sums referable to their employment with Provide, any such overpayment will be deducted from salary.

In addition all managers responsible for budgets have a duty to review all salaries and wages charged to their cost centre and query any unusual items or unexplained variances with the People Directorate, payroll and/or Finance.

5.2 Overpayment of Salary or Any Other Payments made to Employees

After an overpayment of salary or any other payment has occurred, the employee will be provided with written notice of the background to the overpayment, the amount overpaid, how immediate repayment can be made or the planned repayment plan. Dependent on Payroll provider this will be sent by our payroll provider or People Services Team

The employee’s address used will be the last known home address held on the Electronic Staff Record System (ESR) and it is the employee’s responsibility to ensure that this is correct and updated when changed using the self-service option.

If the employee does not agree with the recovery plan proposed by the letter, they must ensure they have submitted a request for review before the repayment plan commences. Within 3 days of receipt of the repayment plan letter they must complete and return the form in Appendix 1 to their Budget Holder suggesting an alternative recovery plan which must fall within with the repayment timescales contained within this document.

If the request to review is not submitted or the alternative proposal is not agreed the original plan will commence.

5.3 Procedure when Overpayment is still in place at a time of Profit Share Plan or other payment due.

It should be noted that Provide will reduce any sums due to be paid to an employee by the outstanding overpayment sum. Dependent on amount this may reduce the overpayment in full or part.

5.4 Payroll

Services Procedure

In adherence to the ‘Agreement for the provision of Shared Services’, Payroll providers will be responsible for the following:

• Calculating the overpayment.

• If the overpayment is less than 10% of monthly net pay, written communication will be sent to the employee and the overpayment will be automatically recovered in whole in the following full month as a deduction of salary.

• If the overpayment is more than 10% of monthly net pay the employee will be written to with an explanation of how and when the overpayment occurred and proposals for recovery, together with options that are available for repayment. A copy of this will also go to Payroll Services, People Directorate and Provide Finance.

• Raising debtor invoice if required.

• Recovering payment from employee through payroll where applicable.

• Producing a monthly summary of overpayments recovered/underpayments made and reason for them, analysed by reason for error.

• The time period over which overpayments are recovered from employee pay will be decided on a case by case basis, but should not be in excess of 12 months, and where reasonable, by the end of the financial year in which the overpayment occurs.

• Employees should also have the option to make a one-off repayment to settle the debt. Where this cannot be made via payroll, then the Finance Department should be contacted regarding a payment straight into Provide’s Bank account.

• Payroll Services have their own payroll internal procedure on overpayments which will be referred to in the event of an overpayment being identified within payroll.

5.5 Overpayment of Salary or Any Other Payments for Employees Who Have Left Provide

Provide Finance will be copied into correspondence with the employee as soon as the overpayment is identified by the Payroll Services Team and the amount will be recorded by Provide Finance in the debtor ledger. After an overpayment of salary or any other payment has occurred, if the employee is still in employment any outstanding balance will be recovered in full from the

following, without limitation, salary, arrears of salary, notice monies, holiday pay, any payment under the Provide Profit Share plan (discretionary payment plan), and/or any ‘one-off’ bonus payment payable in accordance with NHS ‘Agenda for Change’ Terms in order to satisfy the amount of the outstanding debt. Should notice or any other monies not be sufficient to cover any outstanding balance, an invoice will be issued.

For ex-employees where an overpayment has been found, People Services/Payroll Provider will write to the ex-employee and give notice of the background to the overpayment, the amount, and immediate payment demanded. Within this process there will be option to negotiate a reasonable repayment plan if required.

If no response is received from the ex-employee the standard debt recovery procedure will then be followed by for the amount outstanding.

5.6 Underpayment of Salary or Any Other Payments

The principle after an underpayment of salary is that the position will be reversed in the next available salary payment. The employee can request that the budget holder consider an emergency manual payment. The criteria for an emergency payment will be dealt with on a case by case basis only where the employee can demonstrate financial hardship.

Any costs incurred relating to the manual payment, should be charged to the service where the error originally occurred.

No emergency payments will be considered where the shortfall in pay was caused by the employee submitting timesheets or travel/expenses claims to their manager after the published deadlines. Employees and managers need to liaise regarding the appropriate time frame for submission e.g. if the manager is on annual leave or works part time.

5.7 Wilful Misrepresentation by the Employee

If an overpayment of salary is caused because the employee has wilfully misrepresented facts or relevant data, all possible steps must be taken to effect immediate recovery. The Group Chief Finance Officer will decide whether an investigation will be carried out that may culminate in criminal proceedings and/or disciplinary action being commenced/taken against an employee in the event of a failure to disclose an overpayment. No overpayment plan will normally be agreed in this circumstance.

Knowingly failing to disclose a conflict of interest may constitute offences under the Fraud Act 2006 and such matters should be reported to the Counter Fraud team at the earliest opportunity. Fraud can be defined as any person who makes a false representation to make a gain for themselves or another or fails to disclose to another person information which they are under a legal obligation to disclose, or commits fraud by abuse of position, including any offence as defined under the Fraud Act 2006. In each instance the individuals conduct must be dishonest and their intention must be to make a gain, or a cause a loss (or the risk of a loss) to another.

Suspicions of fraud and bribery must be reported to either the Local Counter Fraud Specialist team for Provide on 07919 595930, or to the Group Chief Finance Officer and Company Secretary at the earliest opportunity. The contact details for each may be obtained via the Provide intranet. Alternatively, suspicions of fraud or bribery may be reported to the NHS Fraud Reporting Line on 0800 028 4060 or online at https://www.reportnhsfraud.nhs.uk/.

The Theft Act 1968 indicates that although an individual may not set out to obtain the additional salary intentionally (i.e. overpayment), by keeping it and treating it as their own (i.e. spending it), they may be guilty of theft. Should a suspicion of theft arise, these will be reported to the Group Chief Finance Officer and Counter Fraud team for investigation, as appropriate, which may result in civil recovery and / or criminal prosecution.

5.8 Losses Arising from Overpayment

These will be dealt with in accordance with Provide’s Losses and Special Payments policy.

6. Monitoring and Review

6.1 This policy will be reviewed at least every 3 years in line with the Policy for the Management of Procedural Documents, or more frequently in line with any requirements relating from legislative changes.

6.2 Review will be undertaken by a CIPD registered member of the People Directorate and monitoring will be conducted in respect of policy outcomes. The need for improvement or clarification may be identified as lessons learnt, through using the process and where appropriate amendments will be made.

Appendix 1: Authority to Recover a Salary Overpayment via Payroll

PERSONAL DETAILS

Name of member of staff:

Assignment Number:

OVERPAYMENT DETAILS

How much has been overpaid: £

How much is to be repaid per month?: £

How many months are the deductions from pay to be taken:

In which pay period are deductions to commence (Month):

(If being progressed later than the 5th of the month, due to payroll timings this should be the next available full month).

EMPLOYEE AUTHORISATION DETAILS

I confirm that I have an outstanding debt with my employer as detailed above. Should I leave employment, for any reason, I agree to the deductions from salary as detailed above, and also that any outstanding balance will be recovered in full from the following, without limitation, salary, arrears of salary, notice monies, holiday pay, any payment under the Provide Profit Share plan (discretionary payment plan), and/or any ‘one-off’ bonus payment payable in accordance with NHS ‘Agenda for Change’ Terms in order to satisfy the amount of the outstanding debt.

Signed:

Date:

EMPLOYER AUTHORISATION DETAILS

Signed (Budget Holder):

Date:

Signed (Director/Chief Officer):

Date:

Please ensure this form is returned to Payroll (provide.payroll@nhs.net) and copied to People Directorate as soon as possible in order that revised repayment plan can be approved.

EQUALITY IMPACT ASSESSMENT TEMPLATE: Stage 1: ‘Screening’

Name of project/policy/strategy (hereafter referred to as “initiative”):

Overpayment Policy and Procedure

Provide a brief summary (bullet points) of the aims of the initiative and main activities:

Provides employees and managers with the policy and process to be followed in the case of overpayments of salary to an employee.

Project/Policy Manager: Head of People Services Date: 1st July 23

This stage establishes whether a proposed initiative will have an impact from an equality perspective on any particular group of people or community – i.e. on the grounds of race (incl. religion/faith), gender (incl. sexual orientation), age, disability, or whether it is “equality neutral” (i.e. have no effect either positive or negative). In the case of gender, consider whether men and women are affected differently.

Q1. Who will benefit from this initiative? Is there likely to be a positive impact on specific groups/communities (whether or not they are the intended beneficiaries), and if so, how? Or is it clear at this stage that it will be equality “neutral”? i.e. will have no particular effect on any group.

Neutral.

Q2. Is there likely to be an adverse impact on one or more minority/under-represented or community groups as a result of this initiative? If so, who may be affected and why? Or is it clear at this stage that it will be equality “neutral”?

Neutral.

Q3. Is the impact of the initiative – whether positive or negative - significant enough to warrant a more detailed assessment (Stage 2 – see guidance)? If not, will there be monitoring and review to assess the impact over a period time? Briefly (bullet points) give reasons for your answer and any steps you are taking to address particular issues, including any consultation with employees or external groups/agencies.

Neutral – The policy sets out clear and transparent process that will be applied to all employees equally.

Guidelines: Things to consider

Equality impact assessments at Provide take account of relevant equality legislation and include age, (i.e. young and old,); race and ethnicity, gender, disability, religion and faith, and sexual orientation.

The initiative may have a positive, negative or neutral impact, i.e. have no particular effect on the group/community.

Where a negative (i.e. adverse) impact is identified, it may be appropriate to make a more detailed EIA (see Stage 2), or, as important, take early action to redress this – e.g. by abandoning or modifying the initiative. NB: If the initiative contravenes equality legislation, it must be abandoned or modified.

Where an initiative has a positive impact on groups/community relations, the EIA should make this explicit, to enable the outcomes to be monitored over its lifespan.

Where there is a positive impact on particular groups does this mean there could be an adverse impact on others, and if so can this be justified? - e.g. are there other existing or planned initiatives which redress this?

It may not be possible to provide detailed answers to some of these questions at the start of the initiative. The EIA may identify a lack of relevant data, and that data-gathering is a specific action required to inform the initiative as it develops, and also to form part of a continuing evaluation and review process.

It is envisaged that it will be relatively rare for full impact assessments to be carried out at Provide. Usually, where there are particular problems identified in the screening stage, it is envisaged that the approach will be amended at this stage, and/or setting up a monitoring/evaluation system to review a policy’s impact over time.