UC overpayment

Spoonie_Turtle

I have a UC overpayment (correct, from when ESA weren't paying me the Support Group part) and they've only now noticed and sent me a letter in my journal.  I'm not in a position to repay the whole lot, and to be honest having it deducted from my UC might actually be simplest.

My question is, is there any way to know how much they might deduct from my UC?  The overpayment is approximately £500 and I currently get ~£260 UC after ESA is deducted.

Would there be any repercussions for not contacting them and just letting it be recovered automatically?  I have a month to try to contact them, but I've only ever heard of people not being able to get through and I don't have energy to waste on phone calls only to be cut off - phoning DWP usually uses up 80-90% of my energy and means the rest of the day is a write-off.  

calcotti

Does the letter tell you to contact them or does it say they will deduct from UC unless you contact them?

As far as I can see here
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/benefit-overpayment-recovery-staff-guide/benefit-overpayment-recovery-guide#chapter-5--how-do-we-recover
the recovery rate will be 15% of standard allowance if you have no earnings.

KxMx

With UC can you not use your journal to ask those questions instead of phoning? 

Spoonie_Turtle

KxMx said:

With UC can you not use your journal to ask those questions instead of phoning? 

I can but I don't trust that I would get the right answer.

calcotti said:

Does the letter tell you to contact them or does it say they will deduct from UC unless you contact them?

As far as I can see here
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/benefit-overpayment-recovery-staff-guide/benefit-overpayment-recovery-guide#chapter-5--how-do-we-recover
the recovery rate will be 15% of standard allowance if you have no earnings.

Thanks.  It says to pay in full or contact them to arrange a repayment plan; but if I haven't paid or contacted them within a month they'll recover it from my UC (or a DAE, irrelevant in this situation).

calcotti

Spoonie_Turtle said:

KxMx said:

With UC can you not use your journal to ask those questions instead of phoning? 

I can but I don't trust that I would get the right answer.

calcotti said:

Does the letter tell you to contact them or does it say they will deduct from UC unless you contact them?

As far as I can see here
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/benefit-overpayment-recovery-staff-guide/benefit-overpayment-recovery-guide#chapter-5--how-do-we-recover
the recovery rate will be 15% of standard allowance if you have no earnings.

Thanks.  It says to pay in full or contact them to arrange a repayment plan; but if I haven't paid or contacted them within a month they'll recover it from my UC (or a DAE, irrelevant in this situation).

Sounds OK to leave it and allow them to default to deduction from your UC for however long it takes to pay it off. 

(When budgeting ahead remember also that your UC will be going down by £86.67 in October.)

Spoonie_Turtle

Update: the deduction for the overpayment indeed turns out to be 15% of the standard allowance, which accords with the link calcotti posted