Deducting Incapacity Benefit from Compensation

BarryandSue

My sister had a road accident in March 2005 whilst working. She was stationery waiting to turn right when a car ran straight into the back of her. She sustained back injuries and as a result of being on sick leave, she lost her job. She has therefore been receiving Incapacity Benefit from the state.

She has had constant treatment to the vertebrae and spine and as a result of losing her job, has also lost over two years' salary.

A claim was submitted and has recently been settled. However, the amount of Incapacity Benefit she received prior to settlement, has been deducted from the settlement figure. Surely this isn't right. She has paid her contributions in full all her working life and was paid Incapacity Benefit due to being on sick leave and having no job as a result. The settlement figure didn't even equate to her loss of earnings let alone any compensation for pain and suffering. Surely it can't be right that they take her Incapacity Benefit back.

Could you please let me know whether she would be within her rights to request that the money be repaid to her. I cannot see the Insurance Company or Solicitor refunding the Incapacity Benefit to the Government!

Kind regards, Sue Mulhern.

CIS

All of the rules regarding compensation recovery are here - http://www.dwp.gov.uk/cru/


As far as the deductions go, its quite legal for DWP to make the deductions. They take it as source from he compensation and its a legal requirement that it must be paid by the compensator.

caris

Hi

My hubby had an accident in 2002 at his works premises, he was off work for just over 2 years, his employers decided that they could not keep his job open for him because they did not know how long he would be off for, or even if he would be able to continue doing the job he was employed to do, he had a compensation claim and upon settlement all of his incapacity benefit was recovered by the dss. We agree totally with you that he had always paid his NI, and it was not fair that this money should be recovered.

caris

anntics

Same happened to my husband. It took 7 years to get a settlement, during which time we were racking up debts due to the sudden loss of income. All his sick pay was deducted leaving him with less than 1 years pay and no job. I challenged the decision but as the previous poster states, it is quite legal to do this. My argument was that if he was a millionaire and off work he would still be entitled to IB, it is not a means-tested benefit, therefore only money over and above what he would have earned should be repaid. Basic reply 'go whistle for it', we don't care if you lose your house, etc. I ended up going back to full-time work as my low part-time wages still put us over the limit and excluded us from any benefits. Even though my wages barely covered the mortgage, utilities and the car payments (the NHS required me to provide one for use in my work) we got no help at all. Very annoying, when apart from a week off when he was an apprentice, he had never been off sick or on the dole in over 25 years of full-time work.

suelees1

I think what would (or should) normally happen is the injured person's solicitor will roughly calculate the amount of benefits to be recouped by the Compensation Recovery Unit then add it to the damages claimed from the other side. If this is the case then in reality the benefits wouldn't actually be coming out of the compensation.

donnalove

the dwp are right in taking the money out of the compensation as it should be in 2 parts. 1 for loss of earnings and 1 for pain and suffering.
they cannot touch the pain and suffering but are allowed to take it from loss of earnings , otherwise you will have been paid twice for the same thing. Any benifits claimed as a result of an accident are repayable through compensation. your solicitor should have asked you to fill in a form as these are deducted before you recieve any money.

donnalove
xx