Income Support Overpayed £14,000!!! HELP!!

Fran

GlasweJen wrote: »

I can't work out where this £14,000 overpayment is coming from

Some CABs do a telephone advice service and others can visit at home, you should see what your local CAB can offer as soon as possible.

One thought I had that the figure £14,149.42 is a mistake in that if you take off a potentially erroneous 14 it is only £149.42. I really hope this is the case!

As suggested by several posters, the most important thing is to find out where that figure has come from.

Kimitatsu

Moldy_Plates

I am sorry to disappoint you but the likelihood of the OP's mother going to jail is absolutely minimal - I work with offenders and to date have never found a primary carer of a terminally ill child in custody for benefit fraud.

Danni, ring the DWP and ask for a statement of account, and an explanation as to how the figure was reached. Once they have looked at it, then you can appeal the figure and decision and you can make an informed decision. Your local legal centre or CAB will be able to do a financial statement for you, and most have a welfare benefits specialist who will be able to help you prepare an appeal. It may be something as silly as one computer system not talking to another - they may have you down as claiming one form of benefit when you have been in receipt of another but the figures have tallied (that has happened on more than one occasion :rolleyes:)

Try not to worry

astonsmummy

My Nan was overpaid some benefir or another because of failing to tell them my Mum was living there even though my Mum was her carer.
It's not wonder people get away with benefit fraud, they both claim DWP benefits yet nothing was 'noticed' by Mum claiming IS and carers allowance for my Nan
OP I'm not in the least bit accusing you of fraud here, my Nan has to pay something like £9 a week back, she had someone come round and do an income/outgoings form and thats the amount she agreed to, so dont worry, noone is going to prison x

AsknAnswer

Just to clarify - if mum continues to recieve benefit, it won't be a case of paying the DWP back at a rate she finds reasonable, as they have the right to deduct overpayments directly from her benefit before she receives it. There are limits to how much they can deduct, though if mum is struggling to pay at the rate they are deducting per week, she can ask for it to be reduced. The decision on whether they could reduce it, and by how much if they can would lie in the hands of a decision maker, but again there are limits.

karenx

Am I right in thinking that if it was £14,000 overpayed and they take this back at a rate of £5 per week that it would take almost 54 years to pay it back? Surly they would want it paid back in much less time!

AnxiousMum

I know someone who is in debt to the council for benefit fraud amounting to £65,000. She is on disability (fraud relates to housing benefits etc. as she forgot for a whopping 8 years in a row to inform them she got married), she served 3 months of a 12 month jail sentence, had an ankle bracelet and curfews for three months....and has to pay back the £65,000 - at a whopping rate of £5.00 per week off of her disability allowance. So......given that will take a heck of alot longer than paying off £14,000.....yeah....they will go for long terms.

glossgal

Agree with everyone else-go and get some advice! I'm pretty sure your mum can come to some sort of arrangement with DWP worst case scenario.

Also, I don't want to make OP feel worse but the income support/child tax premiums for a disabled child are in excess of £100 per week so £14000 isn't that ridiculous of a figure unfortunately

sarahlouise210

I think the £14,000 must come from overpaid income support and tax credits - if you claim IB in your own right your mother loses her extra child tax credits that relate to your disability - as this is (usually) more than IB it would have been better to have had your mum continue claiming the tax credits instead of you yourself receiving Incapacity Benefit. On income support she would have received the full amount of child tax credits and they are quite considerable when you have a child with a disability (especially if classed as severely disabled eg higher rate care received) They are automatically stopped when you reach 16 and the only way they can be re-instated is to phone tax credits and tell them what you are up to post 16 - you (and especially your mum) need to get advice asap - it really is not made clear that claiming in your own right will affect other benefits..and tbh the only reason I know is through this site and I worked for HMRC for 20 years !!

dannimaycox

Sorry i haven't been on here to answer all your replies, i've been trying to get my head around all this and try to sort it out. We have realised, after calmly reading through the letter that it was Child Benefit which was overpayed for 2 years. However, 2 years ago a similar thing happened, i finished school when i was 16 and carried on full time education at college. A few months into my college course, my mum recieved a letter from DWP saying that she had been overpayed £2,000, she phoned them up and asked why and the person who she spoke to told her it was their mistake and not to worry about it & they continued to pay her the same (we informed them that i was now recieving incapacity). So two years later we recieve this letter saying that she has been overpayed £14,000! Surely this is their fault as they said two years ago that it was their mistake?
Anyway, we've been in touch with Welfare Rights & they are writing a letter of appeal which we will have to sign and send off, they said if that doesn't work we may have to go to a tribunal
What do you all think our chances are of winning the appeal/tribunal? As 2 years ago we were told it was a mistake over the phone, we have no proof that they even said that. Deary me, i don't know what to do next..

karenx

But even the £2000 plus 2 years CB is only £4080. £10,000 short of what has been overpayed. So there must be something else apart from CB that was overpayed