Underpayment of benefits backdated

jojo211815

Hi all. New to the site as a registered user.
This is a long-ish one...I don't even know if it's an appropriate question - I'll try to be as brief as possible. I receive income support and child benefit for myself and my 2 sons. My eldest son turned 18 in may this year. on 18th August 2008, he started on a skill build training course, and I had £40 of his £50 weekly training allowance deducted from my benefit as it was classed as my income. He is still on this course now, but is due to finish in September. I queried this deduction 2 months ago, and I have now been told that they shouldnt've taken it from me so am owed over £4000 in underpaid benefits. :j Rather good news as I'm sure you can imagine. I know it may seem a little greedy of me, But someone told me I should ask for interest on that sum as it is a fair amount so the interest would also be a tidy amount too. My question is therefore (see....i got here eventually!!!) should I ask for interest, and if so, how much. Any advice would be appreciated. thanks dudes and dudettes xx

slummymummyof3

I think the £4000 should be classed as an unexpected windfall and that you should be happy with that but then I am a tax payer trying to bail out the almost bankrupt country!

Indie_Kid

It'd b cheeky to ask for interest.

tcr_3

You shouldn't be out of pocket for their mistake. So you can apply for compensation to cover not only any financial loss, but also to compensate you for the hardship caused.

Your financial loss is straightforward. They'll pay interest on the sums not paid on time. They might cover any bank charges you incurred if you accidentally went overdrawn because you were short. But the non-financial loss is more difficult to quantify ... you can't really put a price on the kids missing a school trip, for example, if you were too skint to pay for it ... but you might get an award to cover any distress caused by their error too.

[Deleted User]

slummymummyof3 wrote: »

I think the £4000 should be classed as an unexpected windfall and that you should be happy with that but then I am a tax payer trying to bail out the almost bankrupt country!

bankrupt contry?where do you live Albania?

slummymummyof3

woodbine wrote: »

bankrupt contry?where do you live Albania?

I think you'll find I said 'almost bankrupt' - do you not watch/listen to the news or read any papers about the enormous deficit this country has and the spending cuts needed in order to get us out of the state we are in??

Benefits_Bod

There is no provision in law for interest to be paid on top of a corrected award of benefit entitlement.

As suggested above, the only option would be to request compensation if the error caused any financial loss. However, the DWP and local authorities are notoriously tardy when dealing with such requests.

As a sort of loosely related aside, the flip side is that interest cannot be charged on benefit overpayments (with the exception of those cases that have been pursued through the County Court).

fluffymovie

Personally, I think it would be a bit unrealistic to expect the DWP to pay for interest on an underpayment.

Afterall, if you had received the money at the time that you should, would you have accrued interest on it? Unlikely?

Also, from a logistical point of view, how would DWP work out a rate of interest to apply? I know that the Pension Service have a calculation but TBH, I think this would be wrong were it to happen.

I also disagree that LA's and DWP are tardy when dealing with these matters, I work for an LA and have never had one so perhaps that is why any such claims take a bit longer than one would hope.

Indie_Kid

If you owed the DWP money, would you pay interest on it?

Benefits_Bod

fluffymovie wrote: »

I also disagree that LA's and DWP are tardy when dealing with these matters, I work for an LA and have never had one so perhaps that is why any such claims take a bit longer than one would hope.

Sadly, I have dealt with 10s of cases where either the DWP and/or LAs have conducted themselves with decidedly muted enthusiasm in cases where compensation has been at issue. The Local Government Ombudsman reports make sobering reading.... Er, not that I spend all day reading all of them... .