Social Fund say we owe them money

halibut2209

Again, I'll try and be brief

We've had several Budgeting Loans in the past without problem and have always paid them back without problem

However, they now claim we owe them money. Here's a brief timeline

August 2009 - Apply for a loan. They offer 792.50. We receive money
September 2009 - They say it's time to pay the money back from OH's Income Support

However at this time my OH and I separated and all departments were informed.

At this time, my OH's payments were all over the place. IS went down, then up, then down. Carer's Allowance (disabled son) went down, up, and down. Eventually they settled down.

Earlier this year, we reconciled and applied for another loan

April 2010 - Apply for a loan. They offer £812. THIS LETTER STATES THAT WE HAVE NO SOCIAL FUND DEBTS. We accept.

September 2010 - Receive letter saying that it's time to repay the money from Carer's Allowance. This gets paid out every week without issue and payments ended at Christmas.

Jan 2011 - Apply again. Refused as they say we owe them £812. We ring them up, and they say that the loan we have just paid off was the loan from 2009.

They said that my wife was paying that off, and in April last year, they said (in writing) that she had no outstanding debt. Now they are saying that she DID have a debt. So if she had a £792 debt, why did they allow a further loan to be taken out. If we had known in April that there was money outstanding, we would never have taken out another loan. Yet they said there was no money outstanding.

We are uncertain as to what to do

Jowo_2

Are you disputing that this money is owed or did you just hope they'd forgotten it when they sent that erroneous letter saying no monies were owed? Nowhere in your thread do you indicate you'd paid off the first loan by the time the second were issued, just that you received a letter claiming it had. They said no money was outstanding but surely you would have realised if this was incorrect?

halibut2209

Well, therein lies the rub. We genuinely believed the loan had been paid as she was told just before the split that it was time to repay the loan, and following that, payments were all over the place. When we were told that our debt was zero, we took it that the inconsistent payments were the repayments that she was told were going to be taken. Occam's razor.

But now it appears that the mess-up with payments was them adjusting to my wife's new circumstances and miscommunication between governmental departments (that's the only reason I can think of as to why the social fund believed the loan had been repaid). It seems as though IS told both my wife and the social fund that payments would be taken, but then failed to carry that out. However it was nigh on impossible for my wife to realise that as payments were inconsistent.

Had we been aware that payments had NOT been made, then we would not have taken the loan in April, yet we were given incorrect information.

BAFE

You say you are uncertain what to do but I think that the money you owe will continue to be deducted from your benefits until it's all paid back, so you don't have to do anything.

I don't think you're going to get away with not paying the unpaid loan back, sorry, even if they did make a mistake.

halibut2209

Yeah, I guess. It just really hacks me off that both CTC and now SF have made !!!!-ups since my wife and I reconciled (as well as being left penniless for 7 weeks) and we're suffering financially. Goes to show why so many people don't report changes in circumstances.

Nutz666

halibut2209 wrote: »

Yeah, I guess. It just really hacks me off that both CTC and now SF have made !!!!-ups since my wife and I reconciled (as well as being left penniless for 7 weeks) and we're suffering financially. Goes to show why so many people don't report changes in circumstances.

How are you suffereing financially when you have borrowed and spent this money already! You owe it, so pay it back!

halibut2209

Because if you're told that you owe nothing, you rebudget

Nutz666

halibut2209 wrote: »

Because if you're told that you owe nothing, you rebudget

But, if you're on such a limited budget that you had to ask for a social loan, you would know whether the money is being deducted from your weekly IS, especially with it being over such a long period of time.

I think you're just looking for an excuse not to pay. Surely you have paperwork or bank statements that can prove you either paid or not.

Oldernotwiser

halibut2209 wrote: »

Well, therein lies the rub. We genuinely believed the loan had been paid as she was told just before the split that it was time to repay the loan, and following that, payments were all over the place. When we were told that our debt was zero, we took it that the inconsistent payments were the repayments that she was told were going to be taken.

I cannot envisage a situation where someone living on IS wouldn't notice (and wouldn't have proof) £150 per month going out of their bank!

BAFE

halibut2209 wrote: »

Because if you're told that you owe nothing, you rebudget

No, if you're told that you owe nothing and you know you do owe money you query what you've been told.

halibut2209

BAFE wrote: »

No, if you're told that you owe nothing and you know you do owe money you query what you've been told.

"We genuinely believed the loan had been paid as she was told just before the split that it was time to repay the loan, and following that, payments were all over the place."

And if we knew we owed money, we wouldn't have applied for another loan