6 & 1/2 year old "debt"

grayson124

Can someone please help me?!? I have just received an invoice from my local council for an outstanding balance of £406.40 for Housing Benefit overpayment. I believe that I have paid is "debt" over 4 years ago, but the council have no record. I was going to order 18mths of statements from my bank to prove that I have paid, but this would cost me £90!!!
I know some debts become void after 6 years and this "debt" is from Sept - Oct 2000 , so is this "debt" now void?

CLAPTON

you can get all your bank statements going back 6 years by doing a data protection act request which costs only £10.

rog2

If you have made no payment to a creditor and have not contacted that creditor in writing for 6 years, then a debt is considered to be statute barred and whilst a creditor may try to pursue such a debt, the courts will accept as a defence that the debt is statute barred and no further attempt at collecting it should be made.
I am a little unsure about housing benefit overpayments, though, and I would suggest that you take some professional advice.

grayson124

CLAPTON wrote: »

you can get all your bank statements going back 6 years by doing a data protection act request which costs only £10.

Thanks for info. How do I go about getting the 6 years of statements?

JET34

I was just gong to say what Clapton has said!!

CLAPTON

basically you write to the data controller and ask for all the details they keep on your over the last 6 years quoting the data protection act and enclosing £10.

as its the first stage in the reclaiming bank charges process its well documented on reclaiming charges boards. (i know you dont want to reclaim any charges but the information you require will be provided for £10) Maybe if you spoke to your bank again pointing out you have a legal right to the information for £10 they might provide what you want without all this fuss.

however try reading this board
http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/

grayson124

CLAPTON wrote: »

basically you write to the data controller and ask for all the details they keep on your over the last 6 years quoting the data protection act and enclosing £10.

as its the first stage in the reclaiming bank charges process its well documented on reclaiming charges boards. (i know you dont want to reclaim any charges but the information you require will be provided for £10) Maybe if you spoke to your bank again pointing out you have a legal right to the information for £10 they might provide what you want without all this fuss.

however try reading this board
http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/

Thanks again. I am already in the process of claiming back my bank charges. About 3 weeks ago I sent a £10 cheque and asked for a list of all the bank charges over the last 6 years (using the template letter). So are you saying that I will receive 6 years of statments and not a just a list of VERY HIGH bank charges? If so, I just need to sit back and wait as the statements I need are on there way.

Hungryhippo_2

grayson124 wrote: »

Can someone please help me?!? I have just received an invoice from my local council for an outstanding balance of £406.40 for Housing Benefit overpayment. I believe that I have paid is "debt" over 4 years ago, but the council have no record. I was going to order 18mths of statements from my bank to prove that I have paid, but this would cost me £90!!!
I know some debts become void after 6 years and this "debt" is from Sept - Oct 2000 , so is this "debt" now void?

As I understand it even government/council departments have to adhere to the statute of limitations so if you haven't admitted owing the money or paid anything off the amount they say you owe in 6 years, they have to write the debt off. I had a similar experience and hope someone might be able to give me some helpful suggestions as to what to do next.

I got a letter from the DWP debt recovery department about this time last year last year saying that I owed them just over £520 for outstanding social fund loans. At the time I was a full time student, and of course skint, plus I didn't recall still owing them anything. I hadn't had any social fund loans since 1999 when I was last in receipt of income support. Anyway I wrote and told them I had no knowledge of the debt and in any event since it was so long since I last claimed income support, if the debt did exist, how come they hadn't contacted sooner?

I heard nothing from them and totally forgot about the matter until March of this year when I got another letter telling me they had 'now given me every opportunity to pay' and if I didn't pay up within a fortnight they'd take me to court. of course I wrote telling them I disputed the debt and again asked why they hadn't contacted me sooner if the debt actually existed.

To cut a long story short they have continued to pester me for well over a month and in that time I became aware that since the debt was over 6 years old that, even if it had existed, they had no right to pursue the matter. I wrote telling them that I still didn't admit owing the money but in any event that any debt from that time would now be 'statute barred'; The DWP ignored this and sent another demand, I wrote again. 10 days later I still await a reply Basically they are hellbent on disregarding my letters. I have now threatened to take the matter up with trading standards or the government ombudsman.

Has anyone had an experience of doing anything similar?

bandraoi

Benefit Overpayments & Social Fund Loans
The Department of Work & Pensions (DWP) has 6 years to take action through the courts to recover benefit overpayments and social fund loans. This time starts running from the date of the final decision made on the overpayment and from when the social fund loan was due to be paid. But the DWP are still allowed to make deductions from your benefit for a debt over 6 years old as they don’t need to go to court to do this. This applies to overpayments of benefits such as income support, job seekers allowance, pension credit, housing benefit, council tax benefit and paying back social fund loans.

From here:
http://www.insolvencyhelpline.co.uk/debt_factsheets/liability_for_debts_and_the_limitation_act.htm#7