DWP Overpayments

gbhxu

Icequeen1 said:

gbhxu said:

Icequeen1 said:

TELLIT01 said:

I didn't think there was a 6 year limit for DWP recovering overpayment.

There isn't. Tax credit overpayments are covered by the Limitation Act, so there is a 6 year time limit but that only covers county court action. So it doesn't stop HMRC handing the debt to DWP to recover via an attachment of earnings order or by reducing ongoing UC payments. 

What about Section 187 of The Social Security Administration Act 1992 or even the wording on DWP award letters "the law says you need to live on?"

There is a similar provision in Section 45 of the Tax Credits Act 2002 but i don't see how that is relevant. Those provisions say that the right to payments of tax credits/benefits cannot be assigned to any other person - it must be paid to the person entitled and can't be diverted, for example to pay creditors. But this isn't about a payment of tax credits or DWP benefits, it is about a debt. 

 

I'm basing this on the same argument that was used for bank charges being taken out of benefits