DWP claiming repayment of benefit paid in 2007

MikeFloutier

Thanks pmlindyloo,

Yes, I'm sure we owe the money AND it is correct.

I just wanted to run it past someone who has some experience of these things to see if my thinking was correct.

Many thanks for your help in chatting this over, as ever it's good to talk to someone and it also feels good to have thought it through properly.

I will now happily pay up :beer:

dawnie1972

I am currently being chased by DWP for a debt incurred in 2002!!! I have told them it is statute barred (I contacted the national debt helpline and they gave me a revised statute barred letter to send), the DWP have confirmed that it is statute barred and they cannot persue it through the courts, however they have now sent a letter stating they are sending someone round to my home address!!! Can they do this?

Morglin

Money owed to The Crown is not statute time barred, in the same way as private debt. The DWP just keep the amount owed, on file, and whenever a benefit is claimed, it can be recovered from that:

http://moneyaware.co.uk/2013/10/statute-barred-debt/


"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 benefits, for a debt over 6 years old, indefinitely, 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. " ( source Bankrupcy-insolvency.co.uk)"


So, yes, they probably will want to discuss it, although they cannot pursue it via the usual CCJ route.

There seems to be a lot of old DWP and tax debts being chased up lately, not sure why.

Lin

jetplane

OP go to a law centre or the like and ask for help. Whether it is statute barred or not the law that applies is the law relating to ICA which may not have been the same as CA.

Have you had any overpayment decision to appeal against? The DWP need to show you how and when the debt occurred, they need to show you the calculated the sum. They may not even have the paperwork themselves as they never keep it long enough. It was probably official error.

The debt management company are a separate department and they often only receive notification of the debt with no details of when , what , why. The debt is often incorrect.

salnew

I've received a letter today saying I owe DWP money, I have no idea what for. I've not been on benefits for many years. (9 years) It doesn't give any explanations to why and what for, I'm going to call them on Monday to ask them to explan.

Does any one have advise for me? What should I ask for/say? This has really worried me. I do not believe I owe them any money. Thanks for reading.

tea-bag

pmlindyloo wrote: »

This debt is, in fact, statute barred because it is over 6 years old - ie they cannot go to court about it.

The problem is that they have other powers of claiming it back through future benefits (including state pension I believe).

So, I was suggesting that the amount they are claiming is checked thoroughly according to the link I gave you. There are, as you will see, periods of when CA can continue to be paid so you need to work out what periods are relevant to this.

Incorrect DWP debt does not become statute barred. They will get it back. This is happening to alot of people with debts from much longer ago.

They are using attachment of earnings orders alot as well.

And so they should!

pmlindyloo

tea-bag wrote: »

Incorrect DWP debt does not become statute barred. They will get it back. This is happening to alot of people with debts from much longer ago.

They are using attachment of earnings orders alot as well.

And so they should!

Beg to differ

https://www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/factsheets/Pages/25%20EW%20Time%20limits%20for%20recovering%20debts/Page-04.aspx

It is statute barred BUT this does not mean that they can't recover it. It only means that they cannot take you to court to recover it unless they already have a CCJ against you.

And I agree, they have many recovery methods.