Highland Council staff overpayments dropped by 77% in April 2025 compared to April 2024 but £624k was still wrongly paid despite tough new measures
Highland Council staff overpayments dropped by 77 per cent in April this year compared to April 2024 but staff still got £624,000 more than they should in the last financial year.
In February 2024 we broke news that the council was overpaying hundreds of staff amounting to £614,000, that sum grew by £10,000 last year but was put down to a tighter system in place.
At today’s audit committee, which has been closely monitoring the issue, assistant chief executive of corporate Allan Gunn revealed that a tough new system was beginning to take effect.
He advised members that not only was the problem was being dealt with right at the top of the council with the most senior officials – the chief executive and the three assistant chief executives - involved.
They held meetings to try to get a handle on the situation that cost the taxpayers more than £1.2 million over two years - and, Mr Gunn argued it seems to be working.
Overpayments in April 2024 totalled £65,800, but April just past saw overpayments fall to £14,600 - that is a positive 77 per cent decline in 12 months.
Last year’s internal audit made 10 high priority recommendations about the payments to be implemented – something that is considered fairly “unique” at the council.
Mr Gunn confirmed not just that all 10 recommendations had been fulfilled but that officials had taken further action with department heads and staff encouraging them to check they are getting paid what they should be.
A report to the audit committee said: “Significant work has been undertaken in 2024/25 in response to the audit report from June 2024 including detailed quality and establishment checks.
“This work should therefore help influence improved performance during 2025/26. Members should note that the overpayments in April 2025 amount to £14,600 compared to £65,800 for April 2024”.
The report also detailed how “salary overpayments were discussed at the recent extended corporate management team meeting chaired by the chief executive and attended by assistant chief executives, chief officers and senior managers.”
A recent report indicated how part of the problem may lay in education after failures to properly record school staff sickness absences may have led to some overpayments.
The report to the audit committee added that “senior managers within the education service have been engaging directly with head teachers as part of regular meetings to highlight the importance of submitting information to payroll timeously”.
The council is divided into ‘clusters’ – People (health and social care, education and learning); Place (community and place, housing and property, economy and infrastructure) and Corporate (performance and governance, resources and finance).
The Corporate cluster accounted for £12,129 in overpayments or two per cent of the total; the Place cluster overpaid by £177,336 or 28 per cent of the total; but People saw the majority of overpayments with £434,999 – 70 per cent of the total.
Mr Gunn said: “This is building on the original internal audit report of June 2024 when 10 recommendations all of which were high were made, which is quite unique in terms of it being a challenging audit.
“So that has reflected in the commitment of all of the staff involved to try and improve performance across the council overall – this is the latest update detailing progress.
“So for 2024-25 there was £624,000 overpaid and I think part of that will reflect the comprehensive work undertaken in direct response to the audit.
“I would also add that the payment accuracy was 99.86 per cent in the council – while we are not complacent and determined to reduce overpayments further – by way of comparison a large council in Scotland recently reported a 99.5 per cent accuracy rate.
“Of that 66 per cent of over payments were a result of late notification to the payroll team and with 68 per cent of employees still working for the council so the remaining 32 per cent are people who have left the council.
“That is quite important in terms of recovering the debt from those that have been overpaid.
“I am delighted to say that the 10 high rated recommendations have been completed.”
