In what cases does a public official have to reimburse an overpayment of remuneration?

Verified 19 September 2024 - Directorate for Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)

Your administration may ask you to reimburse remuneration if it was paid to you in error when you were not entitled to it. However, the refund can be claimed within a certain period and within certain limits of amount.

If the administration mistakenly pays you (or unduly(b) a remuneration to which you are not entitled or a remuneration higher than that to which you are entitled, he or she shall ask you to reimburse him or her.

Such a request for reimbursement must be made within a specified period.

Undue payment of remuneration may result from computational hardware error (or settlement error) of your remuneration.

This can happen, for example, if there is a computer coding error in your step and the corresponding increased index, which is the basis for calculating your index treatment.

Undue payment may also result from irregular decision which has become final providing you with remuneration that you are not in fact entitled to.

An irregular decision shall become final if it has not been withdrawn by the administration within 4 months of its notification.

This can happen, for example, in the case of payment of a new index enhancement (NBI) while you are performing duties that do not in fact qualify.

All wrongly paid remuneration may give rise to a claim for reimbursement:

Your employer administration can recover the amounts it has unduly paid to you by direct debit, that is to say by deducting them directly from your remuneration, without any form of notification. This is particularly the case when she has paid you a compensation element following a material error and regularizes the situation on your next month's pay.

The authority may also recover any amounts it has unduly paid to you by issuing a recipe document which is notified to you. In this case, the public accountant is responsible for recovering the amounts you have wrongly collected.

Issuance of a revenue document

Your employer authority issues a recipe document which includes the following information:

  • Nature of remuneration paid in error
  • Reference to the text (law, decree, etc.) and/or the operative event justifying the claim for reimbursement
  • Amount of the amount to be refunded.

The receipt must be issued within a specified period.

If this deadline is not met, the administration can no longer claim the remuneration that was unduly paid to you. This delay is called limitation period.

Once the revenue document is issued, the administration has 4 years to actually recover the amounts due.

After 4 years, the administration may no longer claim undue remuneration. This 4-year period is called limitation period for recovery.

When should the revenue document be issued?

Wrongly paid remuneration may give rise to a claim for reimbursement within two years from 1er the day of the month following the month of the incorrect payment.

It is customary to consider that the erroneous payment is fixed at the 30th of each month and not at the date of payment of the remuneration shown on the pay slip.

Therefore, the limitation period for assessment begins on the 1ster of the following month.

After this period of two years, the administration can no longer issue a revenue document.

Example :

For an amount wrongly paid in March 2024, the starting point for the limitation period is 1er April 2024. It ends on March 31, 2026. The administration can no longer issue receipts from 1er April 2026.

Where the payment error continues over several months, each erroneous payment shall constitute a new starting point for the limitation period.

Example :

You went part-time from the 1er January 2024 and your administration continued to pay you full-time from January 2024 to March 2024. The January 2024 erroneous payment may result in a refund claim until January 31, 2026, the February 2024 erroneous payment until February 28, 2026, etc.

Exceptions to this 2-year period

The limitation period of 2 years shall not apply in the following 4 cases:

  • The time limit for issuing the revenue document shall be 5 years if you have not informed the administration of a change in your personal or family situation having a effect on your remuneration. The five-year period shall begin on the day on which the administration becomes aware of the facts justifying the application for reimbursement of the undue remuneration
  • If you are transmitting a inaccurate information, the administration may ask you to reimburse the corresponding undue remuneration at any time.
  • The administration may not ask you to reimburse remuneration wrongly paid on the basis of a annulled regulatory provision by the Council of State.
  • The administration may not ask you to reimburse remuneration wrongly paid on the basis of a irregular decision on appointment in a grade which has become final. This is the case for a decision that has become final for promotion to grade, internal promotion or tenure pronounced in your favor when you do not meet the conditions to benefit from this measure. Such a decision rights creator becomes definitive if the administration does not withdraw it within the 4-month period. A request for repayment would then lead to a request for you to repay an overpayment when you are actually performing the duties for which you were wrongly appointed.

Notice of amounts payable

Once the recipe document is issued, a notice of amounts payable is sent to you by mail to invite you to pay.

The recovery of the amounts due can be done by direct deduction from your remuneration.

In this case, the public accountant makes a deduction from your pay over 1 or more months depending on the amount to be recovered.

The hold cannot exceed graspable portion.

The recovery of the sums due can also be done by issuing a enforceable title.

You can request a deferral or deferral of your debt from the public accountant.

Free discount

You can send your employer administration a request for gracious remission citing any reason pleading in your favor (situation of resources, dependants, etc.).

The administration may reject or accept your request for a pardon in whole or in part.

In the event of acceptance, you are thus exempted from reimbursing in whole or in part the sums wrongly received.

Litigation

If you dispute the existence of the undue payment or its amount, you can enter the administrative tribunal.

But before you go to the administrative tribunal, you have to address your challenge to the public accountant whose details appear on the notice of sums payable.

Your protest letter must be accompanied by the relevant documents or justifications.

This letter must be sent to the public accountant within 2 months of receipt of the notice of the sums payable.

The public accountant acknowledges receipt of your challenge.

He sends it to your employer administration, which has a period of six months from the date of receipt of your challenge by the accountant.

In the absence of a reply from your employer's administration at the end of this six-month period, your challenge shall be deemed to have been rejected.

In case of rejection of your employer administration, you can go to the administrative court within 2 months.

This period of 2 months starts from the date of notification of the decision rejecting the application or from the date of the end of the six-month period.

As long as the administrative court judgment has not been given, the administration cannot demand reimbursement of the sum it claims.

If the administration is negligent in its fault, you can claim compensation for the damage. This is the case, for example, if the company continued to pay an amount over a long period of time when you were in good faith or had informed the company that you were no longer entitled to it.