Soo... benefits want to charge me £3000? help.

shegirl

Mehman wrote: »

I supposed its relevant so i'll bite...

I had been claiming since before 2009 - not sure how far back it goes but i had been in and out of hospital due to both my lungs collapsing and i had to have plenty surgeries to get it all fixed... I was in there for about a year and nearing the end of it i remember signing some forms which were about the benefits.. This was 2008 maybe. When i came out i was recovering for about a year as well all the while i was on benefits.

Then in october 2009, i got the placement through the jobcentre... this is when the benefits should have stopped...

then i left there in feb 2010 and went self employed... I queried the payments back then at some point but i have no record of the phone conversation so its not provable i guess.

Finally the last time i queried it was about 6months ago, when someone on the line actually managed to identify it as payment i shouldnt be receiving... At which point i asked them to stop it and they told me they'd send me a recovery/repayment letter but: "Dont worry since its our fault you shouldnt havent to pay anything".

and that i should send off a pre-emptive appeal letter just incase...
..Which got sent back immediately because the retards were like Dooowwww we havent sent you the recovery letter yet.
and i said: "yes, thats why it says pre-emptive, in the appeal letter"

When did you start working self employed and when did they stop making payments?

I'm trying to work out how it is £3000 you owe as it depends on which periods of time they are looking at.Is it just the time you've been self employed or have they picked up on when you were working too?If just since self employed,what if they pick up on the rest?You need to try and work this out.From what I've just checked the lower rate of incapacity was 68.95 a week,the higher was 80 something.You also state you had income support on top of this.So that would make it more per week,hence wondering when you started and,obviously,if there was a gap between losing your job and becoming self employed you would have known about the benefits or you would've tried to claim (try explaining that one in an appeal).

what about housing benefit and council tax benefit?

suelees1

99% of the posters on here simply don't know the law but they're so quick to judge. People in glass houses always comes to mind.

it sounds like you've appealed the decision and the Jobcentre has looked at it again but not changed the decision so it will now be referred to the Tribunal Service. You'll get your chance to put your case forward before any hearing. No recovery will be sought whilst you're appealing.

Consider the following -

1 You say they knew you had a job so there must be some documentary evidence of this.
2 You are not obliged to disclose something to an agency (in this case Jobcentre) a fact of which they were already aware.
3 You must argue that they shouldn't have continued to pay you if your sick note had expired (or had it been accepted you no longer needed to submit these?)?
4 If it's official error then they don't normally try to recover.

Try to find an advice agency who can give you advice and assistance

Mehman_2

shegirl wrote: »

When ... what about housing benefit and council tax benefit?

It was just income support i believe, none of the other things you have mentioned are in question..

The figures going into my bank account were ~£80 i believe, after i got my job placement, i didnt return to the job centre.. Since we basically shook hands and that was the end of that.. Or so i thought.

The dates on the letter show they are talking about oct 2009 till jul 2011. so they are correct in that respect at least..

suelees1 wrote: »

99% of the posters on here simply don't know the law but they're so quick to judge. ... Try to find an advice agency who can give you advice and assistance

Thanks, I appreciate the advice! on getting advice!

Anyway im going to leave it till tomorrow when i contact the people i was handing my sicknotes in to every fortnight to find out if they can give me any help down at the job centre...
and anyone & everyone else who can possibly help my situation.


Cheers to the few who actually tried to be helpful!

suelees1

bobajob_1966 wrote: »

One glaring mistake in your post useless1, at the date the OP started work no one* receiving IB would have still been required to submit sick notes!

(* The exception being those appealing a decision, but this clearly does not apply here.)

I've not a clue what you mean by this and I'm certainly not intimidated by your playground name calling.

shegirl

Mehman wrote: »

It was just income support i believe, none of the other things you have mentioned are in question..

The figures going into my bank account were ~£80 i believe, after i got my job placement, i didnt return to the job centre.. Since we basically shook hands and that was the end of that.. Or so i thought.

The dates on the letter show they are talking about oct 2009 till jul 2011. so they are correct in that respect at least..




Thanks, I appreciate the advice! on getting advice!

Anyway im going to leave it till tomorrow when i contact the people i was handing my sicknotes in to every fortnight to find out if they can give me any help down at the job centre...
and anyone & everyone else who can possibly help my situation.


Cheers to the few who actually tried to be helpful!

3000/80 = 37.5 weeks of money.so that doesn't add up to oct 2009 til july 2011.So it seems either something isn't right here or not everything is being looked at.Also,you state in your OP that you were claiming incapacity too.so you really do need to check everything going right back.Same goes with housing benefit and council tax.Just because that hasn't been mentioned doesn't mean you hadn't received payment you should not have had.If one department realises there is a chance it may be picked up on by other departments so you need to really check this incase there is anything else,incase you get any surprises!

Arg

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

What advice can you expect other than you've been receiving benefits to which you're not entitled and now you need to pay them back? Anything else would be incorrect advice.

No it wouldn't. At least in this instance someones benefited from the the jobcentres idiocy instead of being left without money for food or put into debt.

Mehman_2

Shouldnt have thread subscribed now i cant leave this alone...!

@shegirl

Its paid fortnightly, £80 a fortnight and it may or may not be more accurate, perhaps im not giving you exact figures.. i have a table with overpayments in front of me though and it looks accurate at a glance.


Really im not too concerned with disputing the amount of payment at the moment, whether its 3,400 or 4,300 either way its more than i can afford... im more concerned with whether i have to pay or not.

shegirl

Mehman wrote: »

Shouldnt have thread subscribed now i cant leave this alone...!

@shegirl

Its paid fortnightly, £80 a fortnight and it may or may not be more accurate, perhaps im not giving you exact figures.. i have a table with overpayments in front of me though and it looks accurate at a glance.


Really im not too concerned with disputing the amount of payment at the moment, whether its 3,400 or 4,300 either way its more than i can afford... im more concerned with whether i have to pay or not.

Ah,fortnightly would make a difference!

To be honest I think you will have to pay because there's no way on earth anyone is going to believe you didn't know you had these payments going into your bank for over a year without wondering what they were.Nothing to stop offering a payment plan though.

BUT as I said,I would be cautious too and maybe keep some money set aside because there is a possibility that other payments you shouldn't have had cropped up

Mehman_2

I assumed they were another benefit.. or something the job centre had put me on that i _was_ entitled to.

I did query it, but given that no-one on the helpline i spoke to could identify it, again, i assumed it was something i was signed up for that i was entitled to...

But when you know you are entitled to benefits, and see benefit payments going into your account.. you tend to assume they are connected.

At least i did.

After i questioned it once, i didn't give it much further thought.. the suspicion of the situation was gone -- until i realised i shouldnt be getting any payments other than the ones market 'working tax credit' - at which point i started to get worried about it...


and as to your statement earlier that they are all clearly marked with what kind of benefit they are, on bank statements.. That's false.
Mine were marked thus:

DWP HSBC2012367620

Which isnt appended with 'IS' 'IB' or anything to denote what kind of benefit it is.

shegirl

Mehman wrote: »

I assumed they were another benefit.. or something the job centre had put me on that i _was_ entitled to.

I did query it, but given that no-one on the helpline i spoke to could identify it, again, i assumed it was something i was signed up for that i was entitled to...

But when you know you are entitled to benefits, and see benefit payments going into your account.. you tend to assume they are connected.

At least i did.

After i questioned it once, i didn't give it much further thought.. the suspicion of the situation was gone -- until i realised i shouldnt be getting any payments other than the ones market 'working tax credit' - at which point i started to get worried about it...


and as to your statement earlier that they are all clearly marked with what kind of benefit they are, on bank statements.. That's false.
Mine were marked thus:

DWP HSBC2012367620

Which isnt appended with 'IS' 'IB' or anything to denote what kind of benefit it is.

Are you really saying that you didn't know that the benefits you started claiming due to not working would be permanent?You really didn't know that you don't get paid benefits from the DWP when you are working unless it's DLA (or if under £100 a week pay carers allowance,but that means you're caring for someone)?I don't think it will be very convincing I'm afraid.What made you think you were entitled to benefits while working?

Have you got online banking?If so check there too to see if anything is marked up.I know with my bank my sons DLA is marked with DLA at the end,child benefit is marked with CB at the end,when I had carers allowance that was marked with CA at the end and I'm pretty sure that many years ago when I had income support for a short period of time it was marked on my statements.