carers allowance. stopped caring yet still getting paid and ive sent 3 emails to tell them to stop

calcotti

OP, the best thing you can do is follow Katrina's to "put whatever you get for caring aside and you won’t be lumbered with an overpayment." I appreciate that this may not have been possible. You will probably be expected to pay any overpayment of UC over time anyway. If DWP have failed to halt your Carer's Allowance payments despite you telling them you have stopped caring then it is arguably official error and they are not entitled to recover the money. Do you have any record of reporting the change of circumstances?

tania12

Hi small update just incase anyone has this issue or is having the issue, I phoned this morning and they have said it was an error on their behalf and all monies paid wont be due to be paid back because it was their error I have to inform uc tomorrow

thanks all for your help and advice

poppy12345

tania12 said:

Hi small update just incase anyone has this issue or is having the issue, I phoned this morning and they have said it was an error on their behalf and all monies paid wont be due to be paid back because it was their error I have to inform uc tomorrow

thanks all for your help and advice

However, it will likely be deducted in full from any UC entitlement, as carers allowance usually is. Which means your first UC payment may not be for as much as you're expecting.

tania12

hes already explained that due to it been their error i wont have to pay anything back. i will update when i get my new payment run down from uc once they have been notified.

calcotti

tania12 said:

hes already explained that due to it been their error i wont have to pay anything back. i will update when i get my new payment run down from uc once they have been notified.

You will not have to pay back any Carer’s Allowance overpayment because it was official error and I am glad DWP have confirmed that. Unfortunately in respect of UC. if they think you have been overpaid, any overpayment will be recoverable because the government wrote the law differently for UC. 

poppy12345

tania12 said:

hes already explained that due to it been their error i wont have to pay anything back. i will update when i get my new payment run down from uc once they have been notified.

I totally understand it's an error but that still doesn't mean it won't be deducted from your UC entitlement, which was my point in a previous comment.

tania12

sorry my apologies i didnt understand that fully, i shall see what happpens when my payments are updated. sorry again

calcotti

tania12 said:

sorry my apologies i didnt understand that fully, i shall see what happpens when my payments are updated. sorry again

No need to apologise. It’s all DWP and you would expect everything to join up but unfortunately different benefits are administered separately and different benefits have different rules. With UC any overpayment is recoverable even if it results from official error. This reduces the incentive to get things right notwithstanding the harm that can be caused by recovery of overpayments. DWP have discretion not to recover but only in cases of hardship and have, to date, refused almost all requests to exercise such discretion.

in your case the overpayment could be the carer element of UC for the months since you stopped caring (including the month in which you stopped). It’s just possible that they will decide that because you were being paid CA you should be allowed the carer element - but legally I think that would be incorrect.

tania12

calcotti said:

tania12 said:

sorry my apologies i didnt understand that fully, i shall see what happpens when my payments are updated. sorry again

No need to apologise. It’s all DWP and you would expect everything to join up but unfortunately different benefits are administered separately and different benefits have different rules. With UC any overpayment is recoverable even if it results from official error. This reduces the incentive to get things right notwithstanding the harm that can be caused by recovery of overpayments. DWP have discretion not to recover but only in cases of hardship and have, to date, refused almost all requests to exercise such discretion.

in your case the overpayment could be the carer element of UC for the months since you stopped caring (including the month in which you stopped). It’s just possible that they will decide that because you were being paid CA you should be allowed the carer element - but legally I think that would be incorrect.

hi thanks for explaining that im unsure of what my carers element was or what it totalled up to be i will just wait and see what they say to me on my uc journel. i only put my claim in for universal credit on the 23rd july and i dont get paid till friday so i assume any changes wouldnt be done quick enough in time for the payment upcoming, they have taken off me 290 a month because of this error and im left with 270 to live off but fingers crossed they will correct it asap

tania12

im not actually sure if i was getting carers element i was only getting carers allowance x