Reclaiming Income support

topsales

A friend of mine has lost an appeal re Income Support and has been asked to repay a considerable amount of money. He is now on Incapacity benefit which is his only income. How much can he realistically be expected to repay per week off his Incapacity Benefit?

hjb123

Well it really depends on how much he owes and the reasons for owing!

topsales

He owes about £7000 - claiming while having savings (now spent). He has been told that he will not be prosecuted.

hjb123

Well I am certain it wont be much, specially as the savings are now spent - but I guess that those savings should have been declared when he was claiming the benefits in the first place!

If you follow the following links they should be helpful:

http://www.jobcentreplus.gov.uk/jcp/Partners/Allowancesandbenefits/Dev_010121.xml.html
this link tell you about overpayments are that they are allowed to take the money from your benefits etc

http://www.jobcentreplus.gov.uk/jcp/Partners/Allowancesandbenefits/Dev_010120.xml.html
this link tells you the maximum amount they are able to take is £8.55 per week for the specified items inclduing overpayments

cattie

Your friend can agree the amount with the DWP. He will probably get a letter from Debt Management asking him to contact them to arrange how the money is to be repaid. The maximum they are allowed to take from incapacity benefit when overpayments of IS have been made in this type of circumstance will be one third of his incapacity benefit. But he is free to offer a lower amount, such as £10 per month or lower, that he feels he can afford. As long as they money is eventually repaid,then they are happy to accept a manageable amount from people.

dag_2

If I were him I'd check that assessment. Seven thousand pounds sounds like rather a lot.

If you have been receiving benefit which you weren't entitled to as a result of undeclared savings, then when they assess the repayment due, they're supposed to figure out how much your savings would have been if you never received the benefit - which would obviously be lower as time goes by - and therefore if you may have become entitled to means tested benefit at a later date. You should not have to pay back any benefit that you may have become entitled to at a later date.

Does that make sense? I haven't explained it very well - but the fact that the figure is so large tells me that either (a) your friend has lots of dependent children, or (b) the claim had been going on for years and years before being spotted, or (c) the figure is wrong - or any combination of these things. Personally I suspect that a mistake is quite likely.

Have they provided him with information about how this seven thousand debt has been calculated? If so - then is your friend good enough with figures to be able to understand it? If not - or if it's a bit cryptic - then I'd advise that he goes to the citizens advice bureau and get them to check it over.

Personally I think it's much more important to get the total figure checked than to worry about how the debt will be enforced. There may be time limits which apply - and hopefully your friend isn't already too late.

topsales

Thanks for your advice - I will pass it on...he is being helped bythe CAB so he can take this up with them.