Express & Star

Dudley hospital trust overpaid £175k to former staff in mix-up

More than £175,000 has been overpaid to employees who have left an NHS trust in the last three years, figures have revealed.

Published
Russells Hall Hospital in Dudley which is run by the NHS trust

A Freedom of Information request showed that 105 overpayments were made to employees from the Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust between 2015 and 2018 – totalling £175,092.37.

Of the overpayments made to the ex-employees, £154,467.90 has been recovered, but £20,624.47 is still outstanding.

Chief executive of the Dudley trust, Diane Wake, said that any staff who have received an overpayment are invoiced and confirmed that they are still in process of recovering some of the debt that is outstanding.

In the financial year of 2015/2016, 31 overpayments were made to employees totalling £60,828.78, which has since all been recovered, it is said.

While the following year, in 2016/2017, there was 33 overpayments made to the value of £48,539.86 – with £13,545.50 of that still outstanding.

In 2017/2018 there was 41 overpayments of £65,723.73, with £7,078.97 yet to be paid back to the trust.

Mrs Wake said: “All staff who have an overpayment of salary, whether they are still on the payroll or have left the trust, are invoiced for the overpayment.

“The debt for each member of staff is monitored and recovered by the finance team as per the debt recovery processes for the trust.

“Staff pay the debt in full or in instalments, depending on the personal circumstances of the individual.

“We are still in the process of recovering some of the debt via the instalments process.

“Overpayment can occur for a number of reasons including late notification to payroll of sickness absence, late termination of employment and overtake annual leave.”

The Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust was ranked as ‘requires improvement’ by inspectors from the Care Quality Commission in April, after they said they were ‘disappointed’ with the trust’s performance.