Carers Allowance Overpayment

bvj2016

Looking for some advice on behalf of my Mother In Law, I'll try to keep as to the point as possible!

• She has received correspondence from DWP that she has to repay over £12000 that she has been paid in Carers Allowance, there is no Civil Penalty.

• The dates cover 192 weeks going back as far as September 2013

• She works 15 hours a week as a cleaner and cares for her elderly Mother.

• As far as she was aware, she had always been within the threshold - under the impression that her deductions (pension / union fee) were taken into account and her net pay has always been under the threshold. This has come from 'advice' from her manager and also a conversation with DWP back in 2011.
• Now aware that only 50% of her pension is included hence why she is 'over' the threshold.

She will challenge the decision but holds out very little hope of having the amount reduced or removed as the onus has been on her to update DWP of any changes - which she has never done as she had no reason to believe that anything was wrong. Some weeks she has only been over by £0.25 and at worst £3.39 per week.

Anyhow, her concern now is how she will pay it back..... she earns approx £125 a week after deductions and no longer gets Carers Allowance. Her Husband is retired, they have a small amount of savings and own their home. She is really worried about this so I'm trying to get anybody's input from experience as to how she will be expected to pay it back.... will they expect it in one lump sum (this would mean taking a loan out or equity from the house) or what sort of agreement would they look at?
Thanks in advance!

poppy12345

Any weeks they earned more than the maximum amount and they wouldn't have been entitled to any Carers Allowance.

A payment plan can be arranged to pay back the overpayment.

kingfisherblue

bvj2016 said:

Looking for some advice on behalf of my Mother In Law, I'll try to keep as to the point as possible!

• She has received correspondence from DWP that she has to repay over £12000 that she has been paid in Carers Allowance, there is no Civil Penalty.

• The dates cover 192 weeks going back as far as September 2013

• She works 15 hours a week as a cleaner and cares for her elderly Mother.

• As far as she was aware, she had always been within the threshold - under the impression that her deductions (pension / union fee) were taken into account and her net pay has always been under the threshold. This has come from 'advice' from her manager and also a conversation with DWP back in 2011.
• Now aware that only 50% of her pension is included hence why she is 'over' the threshold.

She will challenge the decision but holds out very little hope of having the amount reduced or removed as the onus has been on her to update DWP of any changes - which she has never done as she had no reason to believe that anything was wrong. Some weeks she has only been over by £0.25 and at worst £3.39 per week.

Anyhow, her concern now is how she will pay it back..... she earns approx £125 a week after deductions and no longer gets Carers Allowance. Her Husband is retired, they have a small amount of savings and own their home. She is really worried about this so I'm trying to get anybody's input from experience as to how she will be expected to pay it back.... will they expect it in one lump sum (this would mean taking a loan out or equity from the house) or what sort of agreement would they look at?
Thanks in advance!

On every letter, it states that you have to inform the DWP of any changes - did she ever inform them when her weekly income increased? Or any other changes, such as union fee or pension amounts? Unfortunately if she didn't, she should have done. Managers rarely know much about benefit entitlement, and the conversation with the DWP was before the overpayments started, so presumably she was given advice based on her circumstances at the time.

A payment plan should be possible.

calcotti

kingfisherblue said:
On every letter, it states that you have to inform the DWP of any changes - did she ever inform them when her weekly income increased? 

In this case I can understand why the mistake has occurred. It would not be obvious that the net pay received is not the relevant amount and that only half the pension deductions are allowable.

Nonetheless the rules are the rules so I can’t see that there is anything to appeal. She can ask DWP to use their discretion not to recover some of all of the debt.

[Deleted User]

Sorry to here she is facing such a big bill for over payment, the DWP will without question seek repayment, she needs to get into a conversation with them about how. Should she not repay they can and will take money from future benefits inc. state pension.