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

Voyager2002

benniebert wrote: »

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?

There is a bigger picture that you are missing... Payments to desperately poor people to enable them to cover one-off expenses (such as repairing/replacing a broken-down cooker) always used to be grants, and introducing loans to replace these grants was an act of spectacular meanness.

The sums involved are minute, and have no impact on the pressure on the overall welfare budget (mainly made up of pensions) nor on the portion of it allocated to working-age benefits: these funds are under pressure for political reasons.

kittykat17

I don't quite understand how something like this can have happened. I took out a budgeting loan about 4 years ago and the repayments were taken out of my benefits. No question about not paying it back - repayments were automatic and were ageed before I even received the loan. Surely, the same should have happened when the OP's loan was taken out?

benniebert

Voyager2002 wrote: »

There is a bigger picture that you are missing... Payments to desperately poor people to enable them to cover one-off expenses (such as repairing/replacing a broken-down cooker) always used to be grants, and introducing loans to replace these grants was an act of spectacular meanness.

The sums involved are minute, and have no impact on the pressure on the overall welfare budget (mainly made up of pensions) nor on the portion of it allocated to working-age benefits: these funds are under pressure for political reasons.

In my mind it doesn't matter who or why these loans are given, when you apply for one you agree to repay it in a given way.
If you couldn't afford the loan - you shouldn't take it out.


It was no wonder that the grants system was scrapped. It was known that it was being abused with the money being used on anything other than the reason they were given.


And then to wait 21 years before questioning it is beyond belief. Only when people are pushed into a corner to carry through their initial promise to repay do we get comments like - pay as little as you can!

benniebert

kittykat17 wrote: »

I don't quite understand how something like this can have happened. I took out a budgeting loan about 4 years ago and the repayments were taken out of my benefits. No question about not paying it back - repayments were automatic and were ageed before I even received the loan. Surely, the same should have happened when the OP's loan was taken out?

Not if they came off benefits for a number of years and they 'forgot' about the repaying of the loan out of income instead of through their benefits, then 21 years later they are being forced into rectifying their 'error'.


In a way it is no different to being given change from a £20 note when only a £5 note was tendered. Do you tell the cashier or keep quiet and get out of the shop as fast as you can?
One shows honesty and integrity and the other shows that deception is an OK thing.

Voyager2002

benniebert wrote: »

Not if they came off benefits for a number of years and they 'forgot' about the repaying of the loan out of income instead of through their benefits, then 21 years later they are being forced into rectifying their 'error'.


In a way it is no different to being given change from a £20 note when only a £5 note was tendered. Do you tell the cashier or keep quiet and get out of the shop as fast as you can?
One shows honesty and integrity and the other shows that deception is an OK thing.

That is cruel!

I took out one of these loans just over a year ago... after a long period of unemployment I needed to relocate to start a new job, and that costs money. I signed an agreement for the repayments to be taken from my JSA, and added a letter saying that of course I would no longer be receiving JSA and so asked to make arrangements to pay by direct debit or whatever. No response, and in fact it took them about eight months to pay the loan. So their administration is so bad that they simply do not deserve to be repaid, although obviously if they could be bothered to reply to my letter and arrange a means of payment then I would comply.

Marktheshark

Is it the DWP or a two bit Debt collector claiming to work for them.

Voyager2002

benniebert wrote: »

In my mind it doesn't matter who or why these loans are given, when you apply for one you agree to repay it in a given way.
If you couldn't afford the loan - you shouldn't take it out.


It was no wonder that the grants system was scrapped. It was known that it was being abused with the money being used on anything other than the reason they were given.


And then to wait 21 years before questioning it is beyond belief. Only when people are pushed into a corner to carry through their initial promise to repay do we get comments like - pay as little as you can!

The problem is that these loans are for people who cannot afford the payments, but have no other way to meet essential expenses.

If the grants were being abused then better administration should have been implemented, rather than switching to a system of loans that is wide open to abuse and is poorly administered.

benniebert

Voyager2002 wrote: »

The problem is that these loans are for people who cannot afford the payments, but have no other way to meet essential expenses.

Am I reading that right?


So the people applying for these loans know full well that they can't afford to pay the money back??
The claimants are promising repayment but do not intend to carry that out??
They have no choice when in receipt of benefits - it is deducted at source.
The problem comes when they come off benefits and 'forget' about the loan.


Then yes the administration is in a mess - the loan should never have been made in the first place.

benniebert

Voyager2002 wrote: »

That is cruel!

I took out one of these loans just over a year ago.... I signed an agreement for the repayments to be taken from my JSA, and added a letter saying that of course I would no longer be receiving JSA and so asked to make arrangements to pay by direct debit. No response....... their administration is so bad that they simply do not deserve to be repaid

Shame that we all don't have that option when we take out bank loans/overdrafts/credit cards/mortgages.


Wouldn't life be that much easier.


They deserve to be repaid as you had the money from them and AGREED that it would be repaid.

Morglin

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?

There is no time bar on DWP debts, but you can ask them to 'prove it'.

Some debts have been written off, simply because they don't have the relevant paperwork either.

Write to them by normal post and tell them you need to see copies of all the paperwork, and their calculations.

If you were on benefits, the usual repayment method would have been deductions from those benefits.

You could also contact any Welfare Rights, in your area, for help with this. (Google should provide details of any).

Lin