To: University Business Managers, HR Officers and Secondary Contacts
From: Walter Miller, Director of Payroll Services
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has implemented a formal procedure for the recovery of funds in employee overpayment situations. Overpayments occur when employees receive compensation in error. These instances include, but are not limited to, excess wage and salary payments, erroneous refunds, under-withheld voluntary or involuntary deductions for retirement programs, under-withheld FICA/ Social Security insurance programs including billed receivables, and miscellaneous deductions.
This procedure has been developed to inform employees of their role in the overpayment process, to give consistence guidance to departments who are recovering an overpayment, and to confirm Payroll Services’ role in the process.
Employees are responsible for reviewing their University pay for accuracy. When an employee is aware of a possible overpayment, the employee must notify the employing department immediately. An overpayment is not an entitlement to keep unearned money and should not be spent, as it will have to be repaid to the University using the overpayment process.
As soon as departments are aware or are notified of their employees receiving overpayments, they should begin the recovery process as outlined in the procedure. The State of North Carolina considers an employee who receives an overpayment to be in debt to the State and subject to all applicable debt statutes.
Each department is strongly encouraged to review the new document, 1105.2 Procedure for Overpayment Recovery carefully in order to understand the importance of collecting funds paid in error.
If your department has questions concerning this formal procedure, please contact Stephanie Kidd, Payroll Manager in Payroll Services at 919-962-2759 or payroll@unc.edu. For technical questions, contact the ITS help desk at 919-962-4357 or visit https://help.unc.edu/.