ESA Overpayment

Anchoress

Hi, I'm receiving IB ESA support group and back in December had a pension that came into payment.

I wrote to the DWP well before the first payment informing them of a change of money that would be coming in and sent the letter recorded delivery.

Some months later I still hadn't heard from them so phoned them up and they had received my letter but done nothing about it. A further few months passed with further phone calls and two forms that they said they would send which didn't turn up. Eventually got it sorted out in May which of course, has relsutled in an overpayment.

The adjustments to my ESA were made but they haven't informed me of how much the overpayment is or how it should be paid back.

I'm not happy having the overpayment amount in my current account (two members of my family have had money frauduently taken from their accounts) so would like to put it into a savings account of some sort.

Would this be ok? and how long will I have to wait for DWP to get back to me about the overpayment?

Thanks in advance.

pmlindyloo

Anchoress wrote: »

Hi, I'm receiving IB ESA support group and back in December had a pension that came into payment.

I wrote to the DWP well before the first payment informing them of a change of money that would be coming in and sent the letter recorded delivery.

Some months later I still hadn't heard from them so phoned them up and they had received my letter but done nothing about it. A further few months passed with further phone calls and two forms that they said they would send which didn't turn up. Eventually got it sorted out in May which of course, has relsutled in an overpayment.

The adjustments to my ESA were made but they haven't informed me of how much the overpayment is or how it should be paid back.

I'm not happy having the overpayment amount in my current account (two members of my family have had money frauduently taken from their accounts) so would like to put it into a savings account of some sort.

Would this be ok? and how long will I have to wait for DWP to get back to me about the overpayment?

Thanks in advance.

Are you sure that the overpayment isn't being deducted from your current ESA award? Check your award letter to see/telephone them.

Anchoress

Yes, I had a letter confirming my weekly ESA amount with a deduction for the pension each week but not for any overpayment.

pmlindyloo

So to answer your question. You can certainly put it in a savings account but make sure you have instant access without any interest being deducted for early withdrawal.

Edit:

How much is the overpayment?

Anchoress

The overpayment is about £700.

Yes I'll certainly make sure it's an instant access account.

epitome

You can ask them if the overpayment is recoverable and what the amount is.

If it is not recoverable you don't have to pay it back.

If it is recoverable you can ask for a reconsideration against the decision to make it recoverable, and show them your recorded delivery proof to show what day it was delivered (assuming you printed this out from internet as it would be too late now). Otherwise you can quote the date it was received according to the notes in your DWP ESA file.

And you can argue that it's not your fault they did not suspend your claim.

Anchoress

Yes I did print out a copy of the proof of delivery. During one of the phone calls to the DWP the person said that they could see that I had done everything corrrectly, that the delay wasn't my fault so they would not be issuing a fine. I suppose it may not be recoverable but I wouldn't feel comfortable keeping it.

I think I'll put it into a savings account and leave it there for now and see what happens. To be honest it would be quite helpful at the moment if I could keep the 'lump sum' and pay it back weekly as I don't have any other savings.

Anyway I'll wait and see if they get in touch with me about it.

Thanks for your replies.