A council worker’s blunder led to a resident being paid £300,000 by accident.
The Fife Council administrator accidentally awarded a local £59,395 instead of weekly payments of just £59.95.
The mistake was not spotted for more than a month, by which time five payments had been made.
It is understood most of the money has since been recovered but more than £12,000 has yet to be returned to council coffers. The recipient of the payments – linked to health and social care – has been asked to repay the balance in instalments.
Last night, Lib Dem MSP Willie Rennie said: “Although everyone can make a mistake, this is a hefty one.
“The majority of the funds have been recovered but it is concerning that it took so long for the system to pick up this error.
“We need an explanation from the chief executive of the council with details of why this was not identified earlier and what will be done to make sure the system is more robust in future.”
The error was discovered on August 29, three days after the last payment was issued. The transfers were set up due to a change in the recipient’s circumstances.
A spokeswoman for the council, which is jointly run by the SNP and Labour, said: “The incorrect recurring payment should have been picked up as part of our normal checks, so we’ve now put an additional reporting mechanism in place.”
