BACS cut off time

benidorm59

My friend started full time work two weeks ago, she was offered the job out of the blue and is very happy to be back in work. She was on Income Support her child is four,
She claimed tax credits and thought they would tell the Jobcentre for her. But to make sure she rang themTuesday afternoon, she was due to be paid Wednesday just to check everything iis ok, only to be told no they didnt know and it was to late to recall her payment and she will have an oveprayment and a civil penalty.
She told them before her payday its not her fault they cant recall the payment, does she have to pay the over payment back. They said if she had rang half an hour earlier she would have been ok, she had tried for nearly two hours to get through,
Can they recover this money ?

nannytone_2

it is her responsibility to inform ALL benefit departments of her change in circumstances

Housing_Benefit_Officer

Yes they can recover the money as she failed to inform the DWP when she commenced work.

Tax Credits are the HMRC - separate from the DWP.

The overpayment is of her own making.

Does she get Housing Benefit or Council Tax Support and has she notified the Council she has commenced work seeing as she failed to inform the DWP?

rogerblack

If the faster payment had not actually been initiated at the time she spoke to them - then at the time of that payment being initiated by the DWP, the DWP knew that she was in work, and had been informed of this.

Only the DWPs internal procedures mean that it was not possible for the payment to be halted by the person on the phone with one click.

Surely this would make the payment official error, and while recoverable of course - not a matter for a civil penalty?

NYM

If it had been a BACS payment rather than a Faster Payment it would have been too late to recall it.

allen35

A civil penalty for informing the relevant department of a change in circumstances within 1 month of the change??????????

Doesn't seem right to me......

dippy3103

rogerblack wrote: »

If the faster payment had not actually been initiated at the time she spoke to them - then at the time of that payment being initiated by the DWP, the DWP knew that she was in work, and had been informed of this.

Only the DWPs internal procedures mean that it was not possible for the payment to be halted by the person on the phone with one click.

Surely this would make the payment official error, and while recoverable of course - not a matter for a civil penalty?

Agree with you.. a civil penalty does seem harsh. I am wondering if it was just the call handler assuming one will be imposed when it won't actually happen. Not sure it should be OE though, more a recoverable customer error without a penalty

Is there no 4 week run on for IS customers like there is JSA on starting work?

TELLIT01

As has already been said, it is up the the individual to inform DWP and from reading the OP it seems they left it a couple of weeks before doing so. I'm not sure a penalty would/should be applied in this situation as the customer did inform DWP before payment was due. The fact that it takes 3 days for payment to go through the system is not the customer's fault.
If a penalty is applied I would most definitely challenge it.

On the broader subject of notification of Government departments it shouldn't be necessary in the modern world to contact every section separately. Unfortunately Government IT is so antiquated it's laughable.

Communication between HMRC & DWP is diabolical too. HMRC won't even provide information to DWP by phone any more. The claim is that the systems available to DWP to check Tax Credits for example is accurate. Quite simply it isn't. It's far from uncommon to see Working Tax Credit as 'live' on system but the customer has a letter in front of them saying WTC has stopped.

benidorm59

She has rang them again, the payment wasnt a FEP it was a normal three day bacs payment, the cut off is eleven thirty she rang at twelve, well she got through then had been trying for a while.
Apparently there is an overpayment and they are going to get it back and there is no time limit on civil penalties, ie tell them within a month and you dont get one, so she is stuffed.
She knows she should have rang earlier but just assumed they talk to each other those goverment departments. She checked the run on none for IS but she will get four weeks from the council, good old Council but they may be an overpayment of that as well, its doesnt half add up, but she is glad to be working

freezspirit

I didn't know anything about Civil penalty so looked it up
https://www.gov.uk/civil-penalty-changes-affect-benefits
http://www.turn2us.org.uk/about_us/media_centre/news_archive/civil_penalties_can_be_imposed.aspx


Did she make ‘reasonable steps’ to tell income support that she was starting work? Is there a set rule when you have to inform, is it from getting the job offer, first day of work or first wages? Did she make an effort to contact Income Support by phone or write a letter to say she had been offer work or looking for work?

micky2phones

The more i read stories like these,its makes me wonder, theres a lot in media about Government Departments cross referencing people details
to check for fraud.

Could this be done for cases like this one and others ?

Or have all correspondence from Government Departments with a note stating you have to contact all Departments dealing with all your benefits.

Thus ending the lack of understanding ?