Sailors to repay £1.2m wages error

04 September 2012

More than 400 Royal Navy junior ratings must pay back as much as £17,000 each after the MoD found it had overpaid £1.2m in wages, it has been confirmed.

The 423 ratings involved were informed of the wages error after an internal investigation concluded that they had been on the wrong pay grade for some time. They now face losing up to four days' pay a month until the debts are recovered.

One rating told The Daily Mirror he would have to pay back some £17,000, while another said he had been overpaid by just £9. The newspaper claimed that those who had been made redundant or who were leaving voluntarily would be asked to stay in the Royal Navy until the money had been recovered.

A letter to the sailors, quoted in the newspaper, said that writing off the debt had been "deemed inappropriate" and that recovery action would go ahead.

An MoD spokesman said: "We can confirm an overpayment of salary has been made to a number of navy personnel. We have apologised to all of those affected and, in accordance with standard government policy, arrangements are in place for repayment of monies wrongly received.

"Where repayment of monies is appropriate, procedures are in place to prevent any hardship to individuals."