Staff at Staffordshire CC are having to pay back £8,500, after the council overpaid them. Some staff will have £150 deducted from their wages in order to pay back the money. One worker was overpaid £120 for seven months, and must pay back £840. A council spokesperson said: ‘The county council has around 33,000 people on the payroll, and overpayments do occasionally happen. This is normally due to late arrival of information about the circumstances of individuals, such as reduced working hours. ‘Employees are always informed before overpayments are recovered, and the repayment schedule is subject to negotiation in order to avoid hardship. The total overpayment recoveries amounted 0.0005% of our total payroll in the last year.' In the last 12 months the total payroll for office staff – excluding schools – was £156m.
