DWP debt management have made a big mistake!

pmduk

I can't go into too much detail, this will almost certainly still be a live case. The debt was classed as a priority debt, it related to money owed to the SOS in relation to the old child Maintenance premium, thus the only restriction was we could only take 40% of income after tax and pension.

The attitude is that morally the money is owed, legally the debt is unenforceable but the onus is on the claimant to know that the debt is unenforceable and until they point this out the Dept will collect.

Darter245

I have rang today and started a formal complaint with both Debt Management and the Sunderlamd benefits office on the grounds of them being obstructive, not being professional and offering bad advice amongst other things.

Lady from Sunderland benefits office has rang back to say that they are going to advise debt management to halt the Detatchemt of Earnings order for the time being allowing them time to see if they can actually find any evidence to substantiate their claims.

I emailed my MP last nite and briefly explained everything that has happened over the last 15 months. I was surprised to get a phone call from his constituency secretary today. The outcome is they are going to put an MP's complaint in. Hopefully I am starting to get somewhere.

missapril75

Darter245 wrote: »

I have rang today and started a formal complaint with both Debt Management and the Sunderlamd benefits office.....
Lady from Sunderland benefits office has rang back to say that they are going to advise debt management to halt the Detatchemt of Earnings order for the time being...

...The outcome is they are going to put an MP's complaint in. Hopefully I am starting to get somewhere.

To clarify my earlier comment about the MP, that was strictly about the MP being keen to hear about a problem caused by MPs.

Once an MP is involved the DWP tends to give it some priority and serious attention.

I was once paid a day's overtime to to work on a Saturday to resolve an issue that had dragged on and brought an MP's complaint. I spent the whole day going through about 6 inches of paperwork and calculating a few thousand pounds worth of arrears. :cool:


Good luck and report back as this crops up regularly.

HoneyNutLoop

pmduk wrote: »

I can't go into too much detail, this will almost certainly still be a live case. The debt was classed as a priority debt, it related to money owed to the SOS in relation to the old child Maintenance premium, thus the only restriction was we could only take 40% of income after tax and pension.

The attitude is that morally the money is owed, legally the debt is unenforceable but the onus is on the claimant to know that the debt is unenforceable and until they point this out the Dept will collect.

The money is legally enforceable by DEO in the situation you describe. There is no cut off point for collecting CSA debts by DEO.

There is a cut off point for collecting CSA debts by enforcement through the courts - but it only apply to debts that first became due prior to June/July 2000 (I forget the exact date off the top of my head, but can look up the regulation that removed the 6 year limit for CSA debts, which effectively set the date, if needed).

So, in the situation you describe, the debt was fully enforceable by the method you were using to collect it.

pmduk

These were in fact debts going back to the 1990s. I had it in writing that from our specialist in these matters that there were no debts past the year 2000 and that the full amount is unenforceable. As you say the law changed in 2006 removing the 6 year rule from Social Security debts. Like you, the exact date escapes me, I believe it was October, I always had to refer to operational procedures

HoneyNutLoop

pmduk wrote: »

These were in fact debts going back to the 1990s. I had it in writing that from our specialist in these matters that there were no debts past the year 2000 and that the full amount is unenforceable. As you say the law changed in 2006 removing the 6 year rule from Social Security debts. Like you, the exact date escapes me, I believe it was October, I always had to refer to operational procedures

Unenforceable through the courts, but not by DEO. There has never been a time limit enforcing by DEO.

This is the regulation in question:
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2006/1520/regulation/3/made

Reg 3(5) which you'll see specifically relates to applications for liability orders.