Injury pension and injury benefit

Jaznippadusty · 16 November 2009 at 7:39PM

I have been in receipt of my ill-health and injury pension from the Fire Brigade for 10 years now. During this time I have also been receiving an injury benefit from the jobcentre (DWP). A couple of months ago I had a phone call from the local authority that handles my pension to inform me that even though I had presented all the correct paperwork at the time I retired, they had just had an audit and my injury benefit had not been deducted from my pension for all this time. They admitted that it was not my fault. but wanted me to know that they would want to claim the money back. They are now deducting this benefit from my pension but they are taking £10.00 more than I am getting from DWP. Does anyone have any advice on:-

1) Can they ask for it back after all this time

2) Do they set the amount that I have to pay back or can I decide

3) Why they are taking more than I am getting

Any info would be helpful

Thank you

Ian_W · 17 November 2009 at 1:14AM

Were you a member of the FBU or other union, staff association, when you were in the brigade? If so I would contact them and see if they can offer any advice.

Many, many moons ago I had dealings with similar issues of overpayments and as I understood the COMPLEX law at that time the answers to your questions were then as follows:
1. Yes, if they made a mistake of fact (which this sounds like) or No if they made a mistake in law. Mistake in fact would be someone not pressing the right button or ticking the right box meaning an overpayment. However, if they misinterpreted the rules on deducting the DWP benefit from your FS pension they couldn't go back.
2. Greyish area really. There is a law of estoppel which we used to take to a paying authority to court if they arbitrarily started deducting. The court would usually ask the parties to agree, where repayment was due or set a figure if agreement couldn't be met.
3. I assume because all the benefit should be discounted from your FB pension and the £10 is to repay the overpayment.

N.B. Health Warning - my knowledge is dated, the law may have changed or my recollection may be less than perfect!

zzzLazyDaisy · 18 November 2009 at 2:31AM

Hi I am a lawyer, but not a pensions expert, so my comments must be general.

Firstly Ian W has given you some good information. As he says, you really need to get advice because this is a complex area.

The easy bit is your question 'why are they taking more that DWP pay you? They should have been deducting the full amount that you receive from DWP from the beginning. They have no realised their mistake, and so they will now be deducting that money. The extra £10 is almost certainly the repayment of the overpayment by installments. You should have had a letter explaining this though.

The estoppel point may be worth pursuing. In very simple terms it is a proposition of law that says if the error was through no fault of yours, and you didn't know and couldn't reasonably have been expected to know that you were being over paid, and you relied on their error to your detriment by spending the money, then they should be estopped from reclaiming the overpayment (but this would not alter the fact that from now on the money paid to you by DWP will be deducted as it should have been). The estoppel argument is complicated and is probably best used as a negotiating tool, rather than entering into expensive litigation - but as I say you really need expert advice on this.

I am sorry, I wish I could help more

Good luck

Daisy

Jaznippadusty · 19 November 2009 at 5:19PM

Many thanks for your invaluable advice. I am going to a solicitor tomorrow and feel now that I can go armed with some reliable information

Thanks again

Tony

Injury pension and injury benefit

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