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

Oldernotwiser

But when they said they made a mistake but still carried on paying it, what did you do with the money as you knew you shouldn't have received it?

dannimaycox

They said she was still entitled to it, thats why they continued paying.

dannimaycox

Currently i am on Incapacity & DLA and my mum is on Income Support & Carers Allowance.

Oldernotwiser

dannimaycox wrote: »

They said she was still entitled to it, thats why they continued paying.

But that's not what you said in your earlier post. "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"

It can't have been their mistake and her being eligible for the money at the same time.

dannimaycox

Oldernotwiser, you're misunderstanding me, they said that it was a mistake that they said she wasn't entitled to it when she WAS, that's why they continued paying!

timmmers

The Welfare benefits rights people are brilliant, my mum got their help once and they really do a great job. You are in good hands.

There is a huge yawning difference between benefit fraud and an honest mistake and/or confusion ..especially in your situation. This forum itself is proof of how many people get confused on this area.

I hope you have put the troll on ignore. what a sad way to get a buzz...kicking someone who is down and scared ? :rolleyes:

I hope things work out for the best for you both.

t

Fran

dannimaycox wrote: »

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

Is the letter from Child Benefit ie. HMRC? Child Benefit has nothing to do with any other benefit, it is paid to the parent/carers of children when entitled. What it does do though is affect other benefits that your mum might have been receiving.

DX2

I have pulled this post that you left on the tax credits overpayment bit hope you don't mind trying to make things a little easier.

dannimaycox wrote: »

I've been reading through all the previous posts on here and i think it's an absolute disgrace that they can make these mistakes & then expect us to pay them back! Here is our story:

I am 18 years old and i have a terminal illness (have had it since birth). I need 24/7 care and my mum is my full time carer. My mum recieves Income support & carers allowance and i recieve Incapacity & DLA. In 2007 i finished school & continued full time education at college (we informed them of this), then a couple of month into my course, my mum recieved a letter that she was overpaid £2,000 child benefit, she phoned them up and asked what was going on & who ever she spoke to told her not to worry about it as it was their mistake & they continued paying (because i was still in full time education). Everything was fine for 2 years, then all of a sudden, about a month ago she recieved a letter saying that her income support was going down from £150 per week to £40, this was a few weeks after we filled a form in asking us what i was doing now where we stated that i had finished college and was claiming incapacity benefit, then this Monday she recieves a letter saying she has been over paid & owes £14,149.42! :eek: We are going crazy, we are so worried about this, we don't need this added stress, it's making us both ill. We have been in contact with DWP & they are sending out an expenditure form for us to fill in to see how much she can afford to repay, the problem is that we are in a complicated situation to begin with, we live in a shared, rented house with my grandparents (my mums mum & dad) & we both pay my nanna weekly because my nanna takes care of all the bills, since my mums money has been dropped my mum can only afford to pay her £10 a week as we also have to buy food, pay phone bills, broadband etc. and i pay my nanna £20 a week. The thing is, we are also worried because my mum also has 2 loans, which we are paying off, both of them £10 a week, but my nanna doesn't know about this, will we need to include the loans on the expenditure forms? Also, my nanna isn't very happy about all of this and she won't allow her income to be written on the form (her pension) as she says it has nothing to do with her, but the problem is that everybody in the household has to put on their income so i don't know what to do. Also, we've contacted Welfare Rights & they are writing an appeal letter which they will send to us to sign & then we will have to forward it on, welfare rights said that if they do not accept that it was their mistake then we may have to go to a tribunal, what will this involve? Do we have much chance of winning this appeal or will we have to pay back even though it was their mistake? Also, how much will they accept per week? We have no savings & anything more than £5 a week really is going to make us suffer. Please give me some advice, i'm so worried

Really curious as to how your mother could possibly be getting £150 per week on Income support If she was getting carers allowance then she would only be entitled to about £40.70 Income support per week.

Morglin

dannimaycox wrote: »

PolishBigSpender, are you trying to suggest that i am a liar??? I am just trying my best to sort this mess out! Your comment doesn't help, if you haven't got anything nice to say then don't say anything at all!

If you are getting DLA (care) at medium or higher rate, your mum can still claim Carer's Allowance for you anyway, so this whole thing looks a bit of a shambles on behalf of the DWP.

Glad to read you have a welfare rights worker helping you - they will sort out exactly what has been overpaid and who was responsible. If it was 'official error' then you do not have to repay the overpayment.

Your claim should have been linked with your mum's - and I cannot understand why it doesn't appear to have been - it should have flagged up when you started to claim in your own right and when your CB finished - as it is all on the DWP system.

As for any repayment due, the formula is laid down by the law. The DWP can only take x amount off of benefit, depending on assessed financial need/circumstances and the amount the law says a person needs to live on (even if it would take 100 years to repay!). You can appeal the amount they say needs to be repaid each week as well, if it causes undue financial hardship.

This disability legal service is also quite good if you need further advice:

http://www.dls.org.uk/

Lin

qwertyuiop12345

Everything was fine for 2 years, then all of a sudden, about a month ago she recieved a letter saying that her income support was going down from £150 per week to £40

dannimaycox wrote: »

on the letter it says that the overpayment is from may 2007-august 2009

If it was the case that her income support should have been paid at the rate around £40 per week, but was instead paid at £150 per week from the dates between may 2007 and august 2009 the resulting overpayment with result in a total not far off the £14k mentioned.