i have been over paid for the last 9 months only found out

I know this isn’t going to be the answer you want to hear, and it’s certainly not what I want to tell you. However, I wish to be completely honest with you, so I feel obligated to not give you false hope.

The starting point with overpayments is that if you have been overpaid then it has to be repaid. There is no real way around that. That is the presumption.

You could try to rely on promissory estoppel to avoid repayment. It is a high test though. You have to show that you had no way of knowing that there was an overpayment – which might be possible if this is only a few hundred pounds – and that you have changed your position in reliance upon the overpayment. The fact that its a low sum is a double edged sword. On the one hand its easier to argue that you might genuinely not have noticed. On the other it is harder to argue that you position is changed such as to cause significant disadvantage.

Sorry thats probably not the answer you wanted but it is the position that you have and I have a duty to give you truthful and accurate information even though its not what I want to say.

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