What Can They Legally Take?

Fran

margaretclare wrote:

When we're on telephone duty we very rarely phone people back. We don't have time to! Once one call is finished there is another one coming through. We have to put the phone on 'do not disturb' so that we can type up a report in between calls, and the phone is just ringing all the time.

Yes it depends on the different bureaux & how they are managed. Ringing them back after taking details & looking up info can save on phone bill.

Fran

The only comment I would add after reading irs' post is that she definitely needs to check if Income Support does come into it - after all it is income related and if you end up with no money at all to live on it cant be right surely? When direct deductions can be made there is a limit, but the question that needs answering is how do IR deal with IS cases?

margaretclare

Fran wrote:

Yes it depends on the different bureaux & how they are managed. Ringing them back after taking details & looking up info can save on phone bill.

In an ideal world maybe this could happen. I do telephone answering 2 afternoons a week and it seems to me that we're the only bureau in the whole county that actually has a telephone answering facility, in fact people say to me 'I've rung round everywhere else and you're the only people who've actually answered'. We're the 3rd biggest bureau in England and it's quite a big county that we're in. People do not seem to realise that all the CABx are staffed mainly by part-time volunteers and if there are enough people to do face-to-face advising then there may not be enough to provide a telephone service as well. I am only doing it because I can't move about very well, it's easier for me to sit at a telephone. So we would not have time to look up a situation like this, phone back and give a definitive answer.

As irs rightly says, this is quite unusual and it certainly is a complex situation. The only thing that can be said with any certainty is: if the mistake was made by wrong information being given i.e. from the client, the overpayment did not arise from a wrong calculation in the Revenue office, then they will want to have it repaid, but they have arrangements to do this over a period of time - no one wants someone on benefits to be left without food etc.

Aunty Margaret

Savvy_Sue

The letter sounds good, the only thing I would say is "Is she sure she can afford £40 per month, every month, without fail, come birthdays, come Christmas, come the need for a new pair of shoes?" If not, then offer a lower amount, and put a little bit more away for the month when the shoes are needed. It sounds like a lot to me.

Also I know that a very small amount can be deducted from IS for rent arrears, so I would imagine the same would apply in this case, but it really is a very small amount!