DWP claim i owe them money from 10 years ago!

Vermicious_Knad

Hi,
I am hoping there is some advice i can get regarding an alleged debt DWP are claiming. 
I received a letter stating i owed them £500 from over 10 years ago! After phoning them I know nothing about the dates or amounts they claim i owe them.
Whilst i was on benefits around the time of these allegations my bank records prove none of these payments have been made from DWP to me.
I did a SAR and they sent me all the data they have for me and none of the dates of alleged payments even match up. 
Can i use my bank records as strict proof they did not pay the money they claim they did? After this long surely they will need to prove somehow that they did pay this money above and beyond providing some vague dates that dont match up.
Thanks in advance

pmlindyloo

Vermicious_Knad said:

Hi,
I am hoping there is some advice i can get regarding an alleged debt DWP are claiming. 
I received a letter stating i owed them £500 from over 10 years ago! After phoning them I know nothing about the dates or amounts they claim i owe them.
Whilst i was on benefits around the time of these allegations my bank records prove none of these payments have been made from DWP to me.
I did a SAR and they sent me all the data they have for me and none of the dates of alleged payments even match up. 
Can i use my bank records as strict proof they did not pay the money they claim they did? After this long surely they will need to prove somehow that they did pay this money above and beyond providing some vague dates that dont match up.
Thanks in advance

Are the dates within the period that you were claiming benefits?
Difficult to comment really without knowing why they are alleging an overpayment.
Would probably be straightforward if they say they paid you when you were no longer entitled or more difficult if they are saying you weren't entitled to part of the payment.
Hope that makes sense.
Do you mind telling us what benefit you were claiming and why the alleged overpayment occurred?

calcotti

Were you claiming Tax Credits? Although Tax Credits are administered by HMRC, and payments would have come from them, any overpayments of Tax Credits can be passed to DWP for recovery.

Vermicious_Knad

Hi, Thanks for the reply. 
Yes, the dates were within times i claimed benefit. It was JSA whilst i was in between jobs.
They claim it was a social fund loan 4 different payments across a month.
@calcotti no i was not claiming any kind of tax credits.

pmlindyloo

There are various loans that can be made from the social fund.
Read this link:
https://www.advicenow.org.uk/tags/social-fund-payments
Can you remember asking for financial help whilst you were receiving JSA?  Anything from the list on the link 'ring a bell'?
I am not sure what you mean about 4 different payments across a month.  Do you mean they are alleging that they gave you 4 different payments across the month from the social fund? 
Did you have another bank account at this time?  A post office account?  A building society account?
I am presuming that all your JSA payments were the same and no sign of any deductions to pay back the social fund?
Did you come off JSA soon after the alleged payments from the social fund?
How long had you been on JSA before the date they are alleging you applied for a social fund loan?

Robbie64

How long were you on JSA?

The two types of Social Fund payments that existed back then and which would have had to be repaid were:

1. Crisis Loan - often claimed back then by people awaiting their first benefit payment. £500 sounds a lot for a CL though, working out at an average of £125 per payment which is way more than the then standard benefit rates.

2. Budgeting Loan - this still exists and can only be claimed when a person has been in receipt of JSA (and other means tested benefits) for 26 weeks. The maximum rate of a Budgeting Loan has been fixed for over 10 years and is £348 if single, £464 if part of a couple and £812 if the claimant has children.