ESA OVERPAYMENT help urgent!

silvercat27

Social worker oh my they are useless in our city Don't get me started with them

densol_2

Obviously you have only posted a bit of the letter so its hard to read it in context - but ive read it a few times and its very confusing wording ! Maybe take all the letters to the CAB with your friend and have them read through them and try and make sense of them ?

silvercat27

no it stated nothing and he cant recall if he had a booklet

silvercat27

what will they do ? GP and mental health team would they speak to the DWP

silvercat27

Yes love, i worked in theater in my hey-day x

silvercat27

Celifein wrote: »

I guess the GP could write a letter of support explaining his difficulties with understanding things, but I wouldn't get one unless the CAB thinks it'll help, as they can be quite expensive.

I was thinking more along the lines of putting a support system in place for him so that this kind of situation doesn't reoccur.

would the DWP accept this? and what should his GP say in the letter any pointers would help, thanks

micky2phones

densol wrote: »

Obviously you have only posted a bit of the letter so its hard to read it in context - but ive read it a few times and its very confusing wording ! Maybe take all the letters to the CAB with your friend and have them read through them and try and make sense of them ?

Hi, IMO i think most letters have confusing words (meaning ), this is to get you to phone them to ask questions about the letter ?

tomtom256

Having re-read OP it's a compliance interview, not an interview under caution, so it's not as big an issue as you think.

All that will happen is they will work out an overpayment based on the savings as he/she should have been receiving a lower amount owing to what is called tarrif income.

This overpayment will then be deducted from any ongoing award with a possible civil penalty for not declaring the savings. Alternatively he/she could offer to pay it bacj with their savings.

No court etc just an overpayment that will need paying back.

silvercat27

silvercat27 wrote: »

my friend was reported to the DWP fraud dept, accused of working, which is ridiculous he has a LD and mental health issues, and has never worked, the DWP said its probably a malicious call but we have to follow this through now

he had to go for a compliance interview and the job centre a month ago, they asked if he had any savings and he said yes savings of 11,000, the interviewer said well we should be informed of savings over 6k, he's now paying back £22 a week for the current assets which he has in his bank

(however he had a letter in 2012 saying he's entitled to contribution based and income related, and only to inform of savings of 16,000 never mentioned a 6k threshold and I've checked all the letters and forms and they state 16,000 (not 6k)!

made up of
£110 CB & £70 IR

the interviewer said it will take up-to three months for a answer, on wether any overpayment will need to be paid back, and they would have to go back through years of bank statements?

my friend did not know that he had to declare any savings for this matter because he was migrated over from incapacity to ESA Support group, and when he was awarded his award letter said contributions based and IR and to inform of savings at 16,000

can they claim so much back? if so how much and what percentage, i assume thy can only claim on the IR not the contributions based - and can this be challenged because he wasn't aware, the letter he has never said 6k or more in savings, he has the letter which states 16k

can he be prosecuted for this oversight which isn't even is fault, I've read some where that if overpayment is 2000 it can goto the CPS? i would assume is overpayment at a guess is about 4,000??

tomtom256 wrote: »

Having re-read OP it's a compliance interview, not an interview under caution, so it's not as big an issue as you think.

All that will happen is they will work out an overpayment based on the savings as he/she should have been receiving a lower amount owing to what is called tarrif income.

This overpayment will then be deducted from any ongoing award with a possible civil penalty for not declaring the savings. Alternatively he/she could offer to pay it bacj with their savings.

No court etc just an overpayment that will need paying back.

So why have they told him it will take a few months to sort out? He's already paying back £22 a week he's had a letter about that

pmlindyloo

The £22 a week he is paying back is to take into account the fact that he has more than £6000 in savings now.

As soon as you have more than £6000 in savings they take off £1 for every £250 over the £6000 so his current ESA payment is now correct.

They are looking at what he owes from previously when he had more than £6000 in savings. This means that he has been overpaid his benefit. They should have been reducing his ESA to take into account his savings.

To work out how much he owes they need to look at his bank statements (possibly since he began claiming ESA)

Once they have worked out how much he owes then a Decision Maker decides whether he has to pay it back. The decision maker may decide that because of his LD the overpayment can be 'written off' or the Decision Maker can decide that he has to pay it back. They can take the money off his future ESA payments ( a small amount at a time - called a repayment plan) or he could pay it back from his savings.

That is why it can take a long time - they have to work out how much he owes (which is why he needs to send the bank statements) and then it has to go to a Decision Maker.

If he has to pay it back then he can appeal - Citizens advice can help him do this.

Does your friend have any kind of support? Family? A support worker? Anyone?