Overpayments of benefits from 1994?

IAmWales

Nick_C wrote: »

Wouldn't that depend on when the debt was identified? If information has only recently come to light to show that someone was not entitled to benefit they were receiving 25 years ago, surely it is recoverable? Isn't the six year limit a limit on taking action?

I know it's unlikely, but surely they can go back more than six years to recover a debt they have only just identified. Of course, they would have to prove that there is a debt.

No that's all wrong. Assuming the OP is in England or Wales, the six year period runs from when the debt was last acknowledged by the debtor.

The law does differ in Scotland.

niall, when she writes to them give details of what she was doing that year, where she was living and so on, so as to demonstrate she would not have had need for a loan.

antrobus

IAmWales wrote: »

No that's all wrong. Assuming the OP is in England or Wales, the six year period runs from when the debt was last acknowledged by the debtor.

The law does differ in Scotland....

.

The Limitation Act only applies to court action.

HMG has other ways of recovery.

TELLIT01

Back in the mid 90's the vast majority, if not all, records would be kept manually. I'd be amazed if they are able to show an unbroken paper trail to prove that the OP's wife is liable. They seem to hope that people will just pay up and go away.
A friend of mine was a Decision Maker who worked on this area for a while. He threw the vast majority back at the Debt Recovery section because their were gaps in evidence. He said not everybody checked as thoroughly as he did because the work was so boring.

theartfullodger

antrobus wrote: »

The Limitation Act only applies to court action.

HMG has other ways of recovery.

Exactly: they can recover from other benefits, if necessary waiting until debtor gets state pension.

Bogof_Babe

When I read the heading I had visions of benefits being consistently overpaid for 23 years, and many thousands of £ now being reclaimed. It sounds like the claim is only around £150 in total even if it does turn out to be proven, so not too life ruining!

I’m thinking it’s probably a case of mistaken identity in the benefits office records, and it’s up to them to prove their case.

Robbie64

Could it be possible that they were Crisis Loans? Ask your wife if she ever applied for one (or more) of those as it was possible to be paid one while in work, if there was a crisis and a person did not have sufficient funds to meet day to day expenses. Also given that all 4 payments are for roughly the same amount and as your wife was aged under 25 I've worked out that a 14 day Crisis Loan payable in March 1994 for someone that age (for living expenses) would be just over £40. The other 3 payments are slightly lower, but could she possibly have recieved further Crisis Loan payments for slightly shorter periods of time?

If she was in work in 1994 /1995 and therefore not on Income Support then they can't be Budgeting Loan payments so they must either be Crisis Loan payments or the DWP have made an error in allocating a Social Fund debt to your wife.