83 year old told to pay £700 back.

jstvj

My 83 year old Father in Law is in receipt of his state pension and tax credits. He recently received a letter from Benefits saying that he hadn't declared income, which he had forgotten about. It's an insurance which started paying him £3 a month several years ago. The letter demanded immediate payment, failure which he would be liable to go to prison. He told them he had forgotten about the £3 a month and they said they would look into it. Finally he had heard back, they have decided £3 a month from his benefits and have now demanded £700 immediately from him. At £3 per month, this must go back over many years, can they go back that far?

merlin68

Yes they can.

nannytone_2

yes they can.
although after 6 years they cant take court action, they are within their rightss to deduct money from any ongoing or future benefit claim

jstvj

nannytone wrote: »

yes they can.
although after 6 years they cant take court action, they are within their rightss to deduct money from any ongoing or future benefit claim

He hasn't got that amount of cash, so will they just make a deduction from his future payments.

rogerblack

It is very, very unlikely it stated, 'or he will go to jail'.
If it did, this is certainly not policy, and would be worth a complaint.

Londonsu

What benefits was he getting when he had the extra £3 it cant be his state pension that is not means tested he could have £300 a month coming in and his state pension would not be affected at all, was he claiming pension credit, that is means tested or is it the tax credit that would have been affected.

jstvj

I understand it is pension credit that he receives. He was very worried because one letter definately stated that he would be liable to imprisonment if he did not pay

pmlindyloo

jstvj wrote: »

I understand it is pension credit that he receives. He was very worried because one letter definately stated that he would be liable to imprisonment if he did not pay

There is a great different between 'this may result in a prison sentence' and he will go to prison.

Prison is an option in the cases of fraud but these letters are computer automated and have to cover all possible cases of fraud - from someone who has intentionally fiddled the system of tens of thousands of pounds to someone like your dad who 'forgot'.

The Pension Service will not be worried about a debt from someone his age. Just make a repayment plan, the money to be taken from his PC.

And check that he is getting all the benefits he is entitled to by putting his details into the benefit calculator on https://www.entitledto.co.uk

tomtontom

If this is worrying your FIL, could you not pay the debt for him? Then it's all over and done with.

SailorSam

rogerblack wrote: »

It is very, very unlikely it stated, 'or he will go to jail'.
If it did, this is certainly not policy, and would be worth a complaint.

I was on Jury duty a number of years ago and one of the cases was a man in his 60s. He had a small private pension from his previous employer which he hadn't declared. I can't remember the figures now, it may have been about £20pw but over the years it had reached a couple of thousand.
He got jail, i think it was 8mths, and it was a first offence of any type.
However he did plead not guilty and they couldn't make him understand how a private pension could be taken into consideration. He kept saying. ..... But that is mine which i paid for.

pmlindyloo

Just one more thing.

If the amount he received was £3 a month then this means that he has been receiving it for nearly 20 years (probably from when he retired)

Worth checking exactly when he did start receiving it to make sure it is the right amount of overpayment.