Income Support Overpayment From 1998?

mattkingo

Hi,

I am just writing a post on behalf of my mother in law.

She has just recieved a letter from the DWP requesting that she pay back some money from an overpayment of Income Support that she received in 1998.

This is 12-13 years ago now and her children (my wife being one of them) were in full time education and she believes that she was correctly claiming at the time?

Are the DWP able to chase down a 'debt' from this long ago or is this similar to a normal 'debt' which should get written off after 7 years?

Is there an appeal process to follow and how can she prove that she correctly claimed this after such a long time?

She has moved around 3-4 times since her claim and has even resided in the US for a short period.

Any help that you can give or any similar examples of such action by the DWP would be greatfully recieved!

Thanks in advance...

Matt

AsknAnswer2

They can chase debts until death. What they can't do is enforce it in court but they can make deductions to any future benefit she receives (including pension) to recover the debt.

Unless the overpayment decision was made in the last 13 months, she won't be able to formally appeal against the overpayment because of legal time constraints.

rogerblack

As the other poster said - you need to work out when the decision was taken that there had been an overpayment.
If it's recent, or the decision to recover the overpayment was recent - this can be appealed.
First step may be to do a subject access request, to ask for all the information they hold about the case.
Unfortunately, from so long ago, it may be very little, as they frequently destroy old documents.

paco1948

These people will bully and harrass you and your family till you are all dead, according to their staff everyone in a household is liable for dwp debt,i complained to a member of management at debt management salford about this,when she answered she also included threats in her reply,all i can say is don`t let these people get to you,keep on causing a dispute as while two parties are in dispute a payment doesn`t have to be made,DONT waste your time with the oft (office of fair trading) they`re all tied with the same string,infact don`t waste your time trying to get anyone to help you as dwp will also threating them,i had a solicitor represent me and afterwards she was litterally shaking in her boots after the chairman at my tribunal threatened her,his exact words were "you had better watch what you are saying young lady",she refused to even help me appeal,make them an offer and stick to it.

Dunroamin

paco1948 wrote: »

These people will bully and harrass you and your family till you are all dead, according to their staff everyone in a household is liable for dwp debt,i complained to a member of management at debt management salford about this,when she answered she also included threats in her reply,all i can say is don`t let these people get to you,keep on causing a dispute as while two parties are in dispute a payment doesn`t have to be made,DONT waste your time with the oft (office of fair trading) they`re all tied with the same string,infact don`t waste your time trying to get anyone to help you as dwp will also threating them,i had a solicitor represent me and afterwards she was litterally shaking in her boots after the chairman at my tribunal threatened her,his exact words were "you had better watch what you are saying young lady",she refused to even help me appeal,make them an offer and stick to it.

a. This thread is 3 years old!

b. "These people" are trying to get back our money for us from people who wrongfully received it; more power to their elbow!

Anubis_2

Dunroamin wrote: »

a. This thread is 3 years old!

b. "These people" are trying to get back our money for us from people who wrongfully received it; more power to their elbow!

The dates only go back 8 months from thread start for me? :eek:

Am I missing some thread?

Candy53

No you haven't. You are right, the thread started on 28/9/11.

Candy

Anubis_2

Thanks for that

Dunroamin

Sorry, I have no idea where that came from!:o:o

[Deleted User]

paco1948 wrote: »

These people will bully and harrass you and your family till you are all dead, according to their staff everyone in a household is liable for dwp debt,i complained to a member of management at debt management salford about this,when she answered she also included threats in her reply,all i can say is don`t let these people get to you,keep on causing a dispute as while two parties are in dispute a payment doesn`t have to be made,DONT waste your time with the oft (office of fair trading) they`re all tied with the same string,infact don`t waste your time trying to get anyone to help you as dwp will also threating them,i had a solicitor represent me and afterwards she was litterally shaking in her boots after the chairman at my tribunal threatened her,his exact words were "you had better watch what you are saying young lady",she refused to even help me appeal,make them an offer and stick to it.

I`ve read some rubbish on here but that almost takes the biscuit(a close second to anynflos suicide note !)