BLUNDERING Beeb bosses have overpaid staff by £1million a year.

New figures showed the broadcaster accidentally overpaid workers by a staggering £4 million over the past four years.

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More than 839 BBC staffers are now on a payment recovery plan, each owing an average of £1,700.

While those on monthly pay are seeing the cash knocked from future wages, the company has decided chasing up ex-staffers is too much hassle.

But the BBC, run by Director-General Tim Davie, has written off 492 cases over the past five years, costing licence fee-payers £522,000.

A BBC spokesman said: “Erroneous payments are rare and occur in 0.24 per cent of payments.”

They added, “When an overpayment does occur, every case is thoroughly pursued to either recover the money or to seek an alternative such as deductions from future work.”

Last year, the Global Payroll Association said one in ten office staff have been overpaid by their employer, with a quarter not reporting it.

The average advertised salary hit a record £41,000 last year but vacancies fell to a four-year low, a report said.