Advice re: unrecoverable amount of benefit

Ithaca29

Hi there,

This is my first post so please bear with me. I'm a single disabled mother of 3 disabled children and work part time (I previously worked full time but due to having 3 kids under 6, decided to reduce my hours). Anyway back to the point of the post -

Before I started work in 2004, I claimed SDA. I stopped this when I started the new job. Due to an error at the benefit agency, they said I was entitled to this despite checking every so often. Last year, this stopped due to me being not entitled to it. I appealed against the overpayment which totalled £20k and just received a letter today to say that I owe 3 months worth of SDA before notifying the benefit agency (which i have no problem with) and paid in error is £14k but they say that this is not recoverable under Social Security Law but they are asking for this back because I was not entitled to receive it.

My question is, do I still have to pay this back? I know there'll be people to slate me but this was an error on the benefit agency's part and I was foolish enough to believe them.

Thanks,
A confused mum

healy

Ithaca29 wrote: »

Hi there,

This is my first post so please bear with me. I'm a single disabled mother of 3 disabled children and work part time (I previously worked full time but due to having 3 kids under 6, decided to reduce my hours). Anyway back to the point of the post -

Before I started work in 2004, I claimed SDA. I stopped this when I started the new job. Due to an idiot at the benefit agency, they said I was entitled to this despite checking every so often. Last year, this stopped due to me being not entitled to it. I appealed against the overpayment which totalled £20k and just received a letter today to say that I owe 3 months worth of SDA before notifying the benefit agency (which i have no problem with) and paid in error is £14k but they say that this is not recoverable under Social Security Law but they are asking for this back because I was not entitled to receive it.

My question is, do I still have to pay this back? I know there'll be people to slate me but this was an error on the benefit agency's part and I was foolish enough to believe them.

Thanks,
A confused mum

I do not think it is a good idea to call someone at the DWP an idiot as there are people who post here who work for the DWP and lets face everyone makes mistakes.

As it was their error and they have said it is not recoverable you do not have to pay it back but they are still entitled to ask for it.

Ithaca29

Thanks, I do apologise and have adjusted the word accordingly.
Thank you.