Any experts on 1st tier tribunal please?

tomtom256

sammyjammy wrote: »

I'm not sure what the issue is, if you had cashed the cheque immediately your benefit would have stopped immediately, it didn't and you were overpaid and need to pay it back. The cashing of the cheque is regardless IMO.

Unless I am really confused...

No I don't think you are confused.


My understanding is that OP was in hospital long term and couldn't get anywhere to cash the cheque and was that ill, that the last thing on their mind was anything to do with the cheque or their benefits and was only concentrating on getting themselves better.


Then the cheque/capital issue hit them once on the mend and then appeal etc to where we are today.


Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but when ill one does not always think logically.

Tomsdottir

I'm guessing that the tribunal was about an overpayment of benefit on the basis that you "failed to disclose", or "misrepresented" a material fact (that fact being that you had capital -the cheque). Either the amount of the cheque + any existing capital you had such as savings came to more than £16,000, in which case you weren't entitled to benefit, or it came to less than that, but more than £6,000, in which case it is deemed to generate income which in turn affects the amount of benefit you qualify for.

So the key issue in the appeal might have been about whether you failed to disclose or misrepresented a material fact (that is, the DWP argued that you didn't tell them ) rather than about whether the cheque was capital. Although someone might have tried to argue both, I think it would be tough to show that it wasn't capital. So it would probably come down to failure to disclose, and this is why you were asked to prove that you have told the DWP about the money.

So unless there was an error of law at the tribunal, you are right in being pessimistic about a further appeal (though you could take the decision notice/statement of reasons to a CAB or similar for their take on this) that doesn't mean things are hopeless. The DWP has a discretion about recovering overpayments. You can ask them to use their discretion not to recover all or part of the overpayment. Bear in mind that they are routinely asked to write off overpayments and are not very strongly influenced by arguments about hardship and ill health in general terms. However, you have made out a very good case for a write off as you didn't benefit from the cheque and as you say, ended up worse off. If you can get the help of a CAB or other welfare right organisation, and put together a detailed record of hospital admission and discharge dates to show your timeline of what happened and when, the DWP may agree not to recover. Worth a try.

fifitrix123

Thank you, you are very right and we did provide a list of emergency admissions but again I was told I should have taken it to a cheque cashingmplace by DWP!!! Had I done that it would have been fraud?

fifitrix123

Hi and thank you for this Tommsdottir
No benefits were stopped as I didnt do anything wrong in their eyes and they have said that all along but just say it was capital available which clearly I didnt have thousands available to me just a cheque I could not cash!
Could you please tellme who to write to about the repayment and asking them to not take as much please, whilst I get it needs to be paid back, I did say they could have contacted me much sooner ebpven if I was in hospital again! My mobile was always with me though again you were right whikst being told you can die without emergency surgery, popping to a bank was not foremost on my mind lol!
I am grateful for the help as once again am housebound unable to get to CAB or anywhere and welfare rights lost funding etc. I wish I could contact you directly lol!
Thanks again I do appreciate the help.

poppy12345

fifitrix123 wrote: »

Could you please tellme who to write to about the repayment and asking them to not take as much please,

You need to contact which ever benefit it concerns, as you haven't stated what benefit. If it's housing benefit then local council, or DWP if it's ESA etc. Best way to contact either of them is to ring them.

neontetra_2

If you were so ill in hospital and couldn't cash a check then i'm sure you couldn't spend any benefit money paid to you so just pay it back.

calcotti

neontetra wrote: »

If you were so ill in hospital and couldn't cash a check then i'm sure you couldn't spend any benefit money paid to you so just pay it back.

They would still have had to pay rent, Council Tax, utility bills etc.

FBaby

Why are you disputing the overpayment if indeed if you physically could, you would have cashed the cheque and not got the money you now have to repay? It makes no difference. I could understand if they were issuing a penalty but it doesn't seem to be the case so fighting it in the first place weakens your statement that you would have cashed it if you were able to.

fifitrix123

They did issue a penalty too.

fifitrix123

I said expertbut feel free to stick ur nose into something u know nothing about