Highland Council chasing staff for more than £600,000 that has been overpaid to employees

Nearly £15,000 of taxpayers money was overpaid to staff last month alone.

May 23 2025, 2:57 pm

The whole Highlands, not just Inverness dropped the "City of Sanctuary" award proposals earlier this week. Image: Sandy McCook/DC Thomson

Highland Council is attempting to claw back over £600,000 that has been overpaid to staff.

Just under half of all overpayments are currently being recovered.

The council say they have implemented a number of measures to combat overpayments, including sending a newsletter, poster and video to staff.

However, while overpayments have dropped by £50,000 per month in the last year the total has grown to £624,464, which is £10,372 more than was reported in November.

Council officers say this increase is due to the “comprehensive work” in tracking the full scale of the overpayments made.

Why is Highland Council overpaying staff?

Highland Council says that 66% of all the overpayments made to staff have been due to “late notification of changes to the payroll.”

A further 11% was due to “incorrect information being provided,” with the remaining 23% being unclear.

A man stacking coins in a pyramid as a representation of Scottish wealth — Back in November the council were recovering just 28% of all overpayments. Image: Shutterstock.

Back in April last year there was a change in the financial system the council uses, which contributed to the level of overpayments.

Of the current overpayments being recovered, 68% are with current council employees and the remaining 32% are ex-employees.

How is Highland Council reovering he money?

The council have implemented a number of changes into their internal systems to try and catch any overpayments.

These include a monthly newsletter sent to managers reminding them to send “timely data to payroll.”

A poster and video have been sent to staff, encouraging them to check their payslips.

A number of other changes within the council’s HR department have been overseen by senior officers and the hope is this will continue to lower overpayments.

The council say this work has resulted in £14,600 in overpayments in April this year, compared to £65,800 in April of last year.

The council say they have had “further communication and training” with managers including head teachers about overpayments. Image: Sandy McCook/DC Thomson

Council officers have made it clear the payment system still has an accuracy rate of 99.86%.

Speaking during the last overpayments discussion, council officers said they were seeking to “fully recover all overpayment sums.”

Affected council staff were assured by officers at the time they would be given the option of a repayment plan before any salary deductions would be made.

They added: “In the cases of former employees, failure to pay will go through the standard debt recovery process, and so will ultimately result in court action.”

The matter will be discussed at a committee next week.