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Moral dilemma
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Ok, so I received funding from my funding body to go to the States, funding which was administered by my university. Total amount was £2625 which I claimed before I went away. When I was away I bought a laptop which my funding was going to pay for as well. I got back and put a claim form in for approx £1200 to cover the laptop. Now, somewhere along the line wires have been crossed, cause today I got a cheque in for £3800. Looks like someone thinks I haven't received the funding for the States (£2625) and added it to the claim for the laptop money. So, essentially I'm getting my funding for the States twice over. Now, I know what I should do. I should phone up the university and say to them 'btw, I've been given this money twice. Can you send me a cheque for the correct amount please?'. But, and this is fairly natural and normal I think, part of me is thinking 'can I get away with this?'. Cause, if someone finds it out, I'll have to shell out £2625 back to the university.... Argh! Why can't people just do their jobs properly and save me the aggravation.... Any thoughts?
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Comments
It's also pretty evident that you would have known that the amount would have been paid twice and therefore the issue of trust etc would be brought up which could become a problem.
I would definitely want to keep the money, and it might take me a bit of time to 'realise' that they had over paid me. But I'd be too concerned about the possibility of being caught to take it.
However i'm sure someone at somepoint will reconcile thier accounts and ask for the money back. I had someone phone up the other week asking for some money back that we hadn't spent a year after I wrote asking them weather they wanted it back.
Howeve I do sympathise with you and I have done something slightly similar in the past - when renewing my lease on a flat I had to resign a contract with my landlord - he sent it to me already signed for me to send back - but I notice he had put the wrong price on the contract - I think it was for about £200 less than the agreed price - but has he had already signed it - I did as well and reduced my direct debit. Now morally I should have probably noticed the mistake and phoned him up to tell him - but you know he was old enough and rich enough and should have read the contract before he signed it - ahaha.
I got my scholarship paid this year which I debateably am no longer eligible for, but they've got all the info and they sent the cheque so I'm taking it.
TV licesing over paid my refund, but you can be damn sure I'm keeping that money too.
It's your call but I'd sit on it for a bit, don't spend it, don't do nothing, just stick it in savings and if at some point you get an moral idle moment email someone from finance and ask them to clarify what that cheque covered.
I'm not.
If the university realise their error you can be held culpable for not returning it (it is technically theft), and you could be responsible for the statutory rate of interest from the day you received it. The statutory rate of interest is 8%, and not even ISAs pay out at that level.
If you hand it back promptly you're not culpable and not liable.
If they've sent you money for your costs and your grant while you were in the States then you've got no reason to question why they are giving it to you, and you've got no reason to think it was an error.