20 Year Debt to DWP now attachment of Earnings

Mezza180

Hi,
I wonder if anyone can help me with this.

Over the past three years i have received 3 letters from the DWP concerning a debt of £1607.00. Each time they have written i have telephoned them immediately and asked for documents to support their claim that i even owe this money. All i've been told in the past is that it relates to a debt incurred in 1996/97 and that in order to get the information i've asked for they will place an order with their archive and send it to me...but i've never received anything else from them. The last time i rang them asking for this information was about 5 weeks ago.

Then out of the blue i received a letter from DWP on Friday stating an attachment of earnings had been applied.
I rang DWP yesterday and again asked what this debt was for and was told it was in relation to carers allowance i received at that time.
It turns out that after the person i was caring for died i was apparently still cashing the carers allowance orders for nearly 10 months. Now i'm not saying i didn't do this, but i honestly cannot remember and it was 18 years ago, but i'm really not or ever have been the sort of person to do something like this.
The DWP advised me to set up a payment plan which would be for £47.45 per month as it would work out a lot less per month than the attachment order. I reluctantly agreed to this, mainly to stop the attachment.
However i received my payslip today for this week and it shows 3 attachment orders have been taken.
My queries are mainly these:
1/ How many orders can they actually take at one time (i thought it was only 2).
2/ Where should the deductions be made from - my Gross or Net pay?
My Gross pay this week was £496.14

deductions:
Minus Tax £55.00
minus NI £35.78
pension plan £25.04
personal insurance £20.59
SAYE £3.25
Union fee £3.47
Charity donation £1.00

CO Payment £152.13
CO Admin Fee £3.00

Total deductions £300.26

Net Pay £195.88

3/ Do the above CO payments appear correct?

Many thank's for any help or advice

rogerblack

HMRC may have more information on if in fact you were claiming CA during that time, as if you were, you would have been given NI credits.

Mezza180

Apparently the order book used had payments made before the date of the debt and then continued. This would imply that i had used it.

I'm more concerned about the number of attachments and the cost at the moment.

chrisbur

Mezza180 wrote: »

Hi,

1/ How many orders can they actually take at one time (i thought it was only 2).
2/ Where should the deductions be made from - my Gross or Net pay?
My Gross pay this week was £496.14

deductions:
Minus Tax £55.00
minus NI £35.78
pension plan £25.04
personal insurance £20.59
SAYE £3.25
Union fee £3.47
Charity donation £1.00

CO Payment £152.13
CO Admin Fee £3.00

Total deductions £300.26

Net Pay £195.88

3/ Do the above CO payments appear correct?

Many thank's for any help or advice

1 AEOs for council tax arrears are limited to two orders at any one time but as far as other AEOs are concerned can be any number.

2 The deduction is made from what is called your attachable earnings, this is your gross pay less tax NI and pension usually. There is also a protected earnings figure which must be left after the normal deduction is taken from the attachable earnings. In order to leave the protected earnings figure the normal deduction may have to be reduced or not taken.

3 No way of telling without the details of the AEOs
You need to give the full details of what I assume must be three AEOs which will advise if they are priority or non priority orders, the type of order, the normal deduction and the protected earnings.

Mezza180

Having just looked at the letter it states it is a Direct Earnings Attachment.
It does not mention anything about being a priority or non priority order. and neither does it mention anything about protected earnings.
It mentions that 60% of net earnings are protected. If thats the case and the deductions should be made after tax Ni and pension then i certainly don't have 60% left, unless my maths are that bad?
it's just the one letter and does not say how many attachments it relates to.
I assume the rate of deduction would be 15%, then another 15% and then 11% in relation to my earnings this week.

chrisbur

Mezza180 wrote: »

Having just looked at the letter it states it is a Direct Earnings Attachment.
It does not mention anything about being a priority or non priority order. and neither does it mention anything about protected earnings.
It mentions that 60% of net earnings are protected. If thats the case and the deductions should be made after tax Ni and pension then i certainly don't have 60% left, unless my maths are that bad?
it's just the one letter and does not say how many attachments it relates to.
I assume the rate of deduction would be 15%, then another 15% and then 11% in relation to my earnings this week.

This then is a Direct earnings attachment so different rules to Attachment of earnings orders.
There appears to be a wrong figure somewhere in the figures you quote as the gross to net looks a pound out.
Apart from the pound above your net pay appears to be 60% (the protected earnings figure) but I do not understand the size of the deduction or the £3 admin. Do you have three orders (DEA or AEO) against you?

Mezza180

I have a deduction of £3 CO admin, which i assume means an admin charge of £1 for each Court Order - hence why i think there are three of them in place now. I had none before this.
As stated earlier, i only have the one notification letter though.

chrisbur

Mezza180 wrote: »

I have a deduction of £3 CO admin, which i assume means an admin charge of £1 for each Court Order - hence why i think there are three of them in place now. I had none before this.
As stated earlier, i only have the one notification letter though.

I would suggest speaking to your payroll department to get details of the three orders so that you can contact whoever issued them for details of what they refer to.

pmlindyloo

You can check everything using this link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/337871/dea-guide-for-employers.pdf