Winston Peters has admitted having to pay back a pension overpayment, after being contacted by Newshub.

Mr Peters initially refused to confirm he had been overpaid the pension after being contacted on Saturday, going as far as to say someone was “seriously misleading you, mate”.

“Oh well, you know, you go with your source and see how it looks,” he said.

But on Sunday night he issued a statement called “A mistake that was fixed”, and said he had paid the money back in July this year.

In the statement, Mr Peters said he had applied for pension in 2010 “in the company of [his] partner” and a senior Ministry of Social Development official.

“In July of this year, I was astonished to receive a letter from the Ministry to advise there was an error in my superannuation allowance and a request that I meet with them,” he said.

After “immediately” contacted and meeting up with MSD’s area manager, Mr Peters says they agreed there had been an error.

“It was unclear on both sides how the error had occurred leading to a small fortnightly overpayment,” he said.

It’s not yet known how much he was overpaid, but Mr Peters said he “corrected” the error and overpayment within a day of finding out about it.