DWP asking for a social fund loan which is 21yrs old

Louloulou

Hi can anyone advise me please
I received a letter from DWP asking me to pay back a social fund
Loan dating back to 1994 and 2006 totalling £700!
If I don't pay then they will contact my employer and it will come out of my wages!
I have no idea if I took out this loan or paid anything back aleady and no longer have any paperwork
What can I do about this?

specialboy

First off you must ask them toro e you owe them any money, if you do then you can arrange a payment plan with them

benniebert

Louloulou wrote: »

Hi can anyone advise me please
I received a letter from DWP asking me to pay back a social fund
Loan dating back to 1994 and 2006 totalling £700!
If I don't pay then they will contact my employer and it will come out of my wages!
I have no idea if I took out this loan or paid anything back aleady and no longer have any paperwork
What can I do about this?

So You can't remember if you borrowed money twice from the DWP? You can't remember paying back two loans you don't remember having?


Why don't you ask the DWP to prove (1) that you took out these loans and (2) what amounts you don't think you have paid.


With respect it seems to me that the DWP are now trawling the outstanding debts that people may owe because they haven't been repaid in full and on time.

Louloulou

I have called them already and she is sending me details of the loan and
Whatever payments. What concerns me as it was 21yrs ago have they lost a lot of evidence I can only take there word on it.

[Deleted User]

At present you have no idea what paperwork they have. 21 years is a long time but its not like a normal debt, there's no time barring.

I'd go to citizen's advice and ask, or find a welfare rights charity to ask.

I must admit, I do have benefit paperwork going back 20 years. I never throw financial paperwork out although I am stringent about other things. Its handy to have. I also am aware of any loans and whether I paid them back because having something jump on me years later would be nasty. It also helps when iffy credit collections people start writing letters about debts that go back a decade for vastly increased amounts, trying it on. I've got one that still writes to me about a pc that was returned because it didn't work over a decade ago.

I had something come up about overpaid housing benefit from four years ago..,I was able to prove exactly what was going on then and why I didn't owe it because I had paperwork going back many years.

If you disagree that you owe this money, you will again have to speak to citizen's advice. But its going to be your word against theirs if you don't have any paperwork.., and guess who's more likely to be believed?

All I can suggest if you have to pay it back is setting repayment terms as favourable to yourself as possible (i.e. minimal repayments).

benniebert

deannatrois wrote: »

All I can suggest if you have to pay it back is setting repayment terms as favourable to yourself as possible (i.e. minimal repayments).

Shouldn't it be the other way round? Repay as much as you can, not as little as you can get away with?


Taxpayers have been waiting 21 years to have a debt repaid, surely it is only right that the poster does not delay it any further?

helping_hand2014

offer a realistic repayment plan of what you can afford to pay back each month as long as your paying it back they should be fine wiht it

benniebert

helping_hand2014 wrote: »

offer a realistic repayment plan of what you can afford to pay back each month as long as your paying it back they should be fine wiht it

So the moral of the story is always get a DWP loan if you can over any other loan company.


Why, because they never chase you for it to be repaid and when they do, make sure you pay them the minimum you can get away with.


what fantastic advice.


No wonder they are having to cut the welfare budget even further with that sort of attitude.

Louloulou

Thank you for all replies
I do intend to pay back anything I owe I was just surprised that it's taken 21yrs to ask for it! Which makes me worried they have made a mistake. I keep paperwork for 7 years but that's it. I will go to citizens advice just in case.

benniebert

Louloulou wrote: »

I do intend to pay back anything I owe I was just surprised that it's taken 21yrs to ask for it! .

No not really. You have ignored paying it back for 21 years, presumably hoping that it would get lost somewhere along the way. The onus is on you to pay it, not on the DWP to chase you for it.

rogerblack

Louloulou wrote: »

Thank you for all replies
I do intend to pay back anything I owe I was just surprised that it's taken 21yrs to ask for it! Which makes me worried they have made a mistake. I keep paperwork for 7 years but that's it. I will go to citizens advice just in case.

There is no advice they can give you other than what's already been given.
For a 21 year-old debt, the debt will only not be recovered in exceptional circumstances.
The problem is the deadline to appeal the debt ran out 20 years ago.
Somewhere during this time, you will have been sent a letter to your last known address about the debt. You then had a year to dispute this.
Once the year has run out, the legislation is such that they can only decide to not recover in circumstances of for example identity fraud.
And proving fraud may be quite hard as they may not have kept much documentation on the loan.

Unfortunately, them not having kept much documentation doesn't remove the fact that any decision not to recover - or that it was indeed fraud - can only be done by them - there is nothing you can do to compel them not to recover, or to prove that there is a loan.