civil penalty £50

abetterfutureahead

Letter dated 13/03/2013
What we have decided
You do not have to pay the money back. This is because having reviewed the facts and circumstances now available to us the overpayment has been reclassified as our fault.

Success! :T

I will now take more active role on this site.
I fear in the near future people are going to experience many more problems regarding benefits.
Thanks to all who took the time to read my rants, I really appreciate it :beer:

abetterfutureahead

My thanks also go to Mr ........ who works at the benefit agency, Wish the department employed more people like you.

When people are passed from pillar to post it becomes frustrating having to repeat the story. All we want is to deal with one person... seems to me it would be much more cost effective

ArtoDeeto

Yes it's for when you don't tell the benefits office of a change but it doesn't quite amount to fraud. What is your issue?

jellybaby8

I have appealed against a £50 civil penalty charge and have received a letter from HM Courts and Tribunals Services regarding a hearing and whether or not I want to continue with the appeal!
I'm unsure what to do for the best and it's really stressing me out!

Dogger69

jellybaby8 wrote: »

I have appealed against a £50 civil penalty charge and have received a letter from HM Courts and Tribunals Services regarding a hearing and whether or not I want to continue with the appeal!
I'm unsure what to do for the best and it's really stressing me out!

You need to give us more information if you want help - what is the reason for the penalty, and your grounds for appeal?

If you start a new thread it will stop people being confused with the original query on this one.

jellybaby8

Basically, I have been claiming ESA due to an illness. In Oct 2012 I began part-time work (12 hours per week) I informed the benefit office and continued to receive my benefit.
Earlier this year my place of work offered me more hours. I was aware my benefits would stop (and I would be worse off) but I wanted to work for the money in my bank account!
My contract officially changed on 31/1/13 but I was unaware of this as I did not SEE or SIGN a new contract until 9/2/13.
I phoned the benefits office to inform them of my changes in circumstances on 4/2/13 as I wanted to keep them informed. The lady on the phone then recorded that the increase in hours had taken place from 28/1/13. My benefits immediately stopped following this phone call as I knew they would.
A few weeks later I received a letter telling me I had been overpaid and that they were considering imposing a Civil Penalty of £50! I phoned the benefit office to complain and was told to put it in writing! So I did!
Again another letter arrived this time stating that I would need to pay back the overpayment as well as the penalty totalling around £120!!
So again I phoned to complain. The lady on the phone could not tell me the reason the penalty had been imposed but informed me I could appeal and sent me out the correct forms.
I filled these in and sent them back including a copy of the new contract (clearly signed 9/2/13)
The response I got was that they would not change their decision as I had "failed to notify, without reasonable excuse, a change of circumstances"
If I didn't know the exact date my contract changed then how could I notify them?!

mikey_bach

Why did they close your claim from the 28th Jan? your claim should have closed from the date you started full time work, you say this is the 31st Jan the date your contracted hours increased to full time or over sixteen for ESA purposes.

I think you should ask for a reconsideration of their decision on why they closed your claim to early first
Your OP should be from the 31st Jan to whatever date you were paid to
and this needs to be looked at first

jellybaby8

The overpayment I'm being charged is from 28/1/13- 31/1/13.
They closed the claim from 28/1/13 because when I phoned to tell them my hours were increasing she asked me what date the changes were taking place and as I didn't know for certain she recorded it as the 28th as that was the Monday.

mikey_bach

can I ask you how much ESA you were on a week ? your OP is just three days
£70 sounds a lot for three days maybe there is a mistake here

You should only have an OP of one day the 31st anyway their decision looks wrong

jellybaby8

The overpayment for the three days is £68.49.
I received approx. £118 per week as I was on a special band I think, due to my illness.
So with the penalty on top it's quite a lot!