DWP Paying me erroniously

John72Oliver

Alice_Holt said:

As a very cheeky aside - if an element does prove unrecoverable - you may decide to donate this to local charities (those which it could be argued may doing work in the their community, that one might expect taxpayer funded government organisations to pick up).  I have in mind food banks /  advice charities / etc.     
(But then I'm biased, having volunteered at my local Citizens Advice !! )   

    

I have considered writing to them something along the lines of 'It's not my job to safeguard your money! Come collect it or it goes to charity!'.

Robbie64

There should be a payment reference number for each payment. It's usually in the form of an NI number and should also indicate what benefit the payment relates to.

Galloglass

I have considered writing to them something along the lines of 'It's not my job to safeguard your money! Come collect it or it goes to charity!'.

This explains it.

In respect of official error overpayment, as the OP has no benefit claim and as the payment has not been made as part of a valid benefit claim, it could be recovered. The key point is you have to be the legitimate claimant and have received it as part of a valid benefit claim. The OP doesn't fit either criteria.

huckster

Robbie64 said:

There should be a payment reference number for each payment. It's usually in the form of an NI number and should also indicate what benefit the payment relates to.

Yes, the Bank receiving these payments will hold more information about the credits being received.
The Bank will be able to return these credits to DWP, with a code suggesting that the credits are erroneous.  This should cause DWP to look into the payments they are making.

born_again

Robbie64 said:

There should be a payment reference number for each payment. It's usually in the form of an NI number and should also indicate what benefit the payment relates to.

Except the reference No changes with each payment. While what the payment relates to does not. (been and checked the last few months of mine)

John72Oliver

The references are different for each payment, they're just a long alpha-numeric string.

I have spoken with the bank. They say that they are not at all able to reverse these paymments nor are they able to block them. The only thing that they can do from their end is close the account which would cause the next payment to be returned and would stop future payments getting through. However, this would restart my relationship with the bank, they keep two scores on each customer. One is the credit score, the other is the individual score, that being how much they like the individual customer.

The individual score goes some way to gaining credit from them but also goes a long way toward dealing with problems. For example, if I made a mistake and called them and asked them to remove the fee they would be more likely to do so if my individual score was high. Although I manage my account well, I will not be resetting that for the benefit of the DWP.

Robbie64

I don't think you've been asked this but regarding the two weekly payments: are both payments for the same amount each week? If so how much are they for. We might be able to pinpoint what benefits they relate to. If not the same, please post examples of the payment amounts.

TELLIT01

huckster said:

Robbie64 said:

There should be a payment reference number for each payment. It's usually in the form of an NI number and should also indicate what benefit the payment relates to.

Yes, the Bank receiving these payments will hold more information about the credits being received.
The Bank will be able to return these credits to DWP, with a code suggesting that the credits are erroneous.  This should cause DWP to look into the payments they are making.

As far as the bank is concerned there is nothing wrong with the payment.  They are going into the account provided by DWP so they will not wish to be caught in the middle.  The OP has done all they can at this point.  Taking it to their MP is their best route forward.  When it is sorted I would be demanding compensation for all the time and effort put into trying to sort out DWP failures.

John72Oliver

This week the payment marked '********* DWP SP REFERENCE: 000000000116991689' was for £155.41, the payment marked '********* DWP PC REFERENCE: 000000000115941368' was for £12.11. Those two are the same every week but this week was special. An extra payment marked 'DWP W F REFERENCE: 000000000121433555' for £300 was made. That's somebody's winter fuel allowance.

As for demanding compensation, I would love to just to humiliate them into behaving better. Ultimately though it is tax payers money and we all end up paying for that. I'm not making a moral judgement of anybody but that is someone that I do not want to be.

anmarj

That is somebody’s payment going in to your account either it was typed in error or wrong details given. Have you given dwp that number at the start? Ask them to suspend payments