Universal Credit reclaim via DWP

Deryk

Hi all
My daughter has recently received a demand from DWP for some £4,000 with no explanation as to how the debt occurred. She has been on and off UC for the last year or so but has always kept in touch via the online portal. When she contacted DWP they would not provide any information regarding the debt so she contacted UC to be told her case was closed and she didn't owe anything. To cut a long story short she has now discovered that it refers to UC payments from the last 13 months which equates to about £300 per month. The most she was ever paid in a month was £500 so they are trying to reclaim the majority of the payments made to her. How can this be correct when the amount she originally received covered her rent and left her with the minimum amount deemed acceptable to live on?
Is this something that we can defend or do we have to just accept the debt? Thank you in advance for any help with this.

calcotti

I can speculate as to what has happened.
If she claimed last year then normal ID verification was suspended. DWP have retrospectively been asking claimants to verify their ID. If they do not respond the whole claim is declared invalid and all payments are treated as an overpayment. This may be what has happened. i suggest you total all of her payments and see if this matches the stated overpayment. It is not clear that DWP have any legal basis for doing this. If they request information which is not supplied they can end the claim but there doesn’t appear to be any basis for applying this retrospectively - for that they would need evidence that the original award was based on incorrect information (not the same as absence of information). See discussion here
https://www.rightsnet.org.uk/forums/viewthread/17067/

She can certainly challenge the decision (it would it would be helpful to first establish what has happened). Does she still have access to her journal? If so check it again for any missed tasks. If there is anything about ID then supply the necessary information now.

Unfortunately there are likely to be a lot of such cases. If you have a sympathetic MP it may be worth contacting their office because I think we need raised awareness of what is happening.

TELLIT01

You don't just have to accept the debt, and DWP must provide evidence of it.  It's impossible to say much more without additional information about the debt.  The most common causes of overpayment are income not fully reported, somebody claiming as a single person when part of a couple or not divulging all their capital.

Alice_Holt

I would certainly contact the MP, and ask them to intervene with UC to get a comprehensible explanation for the overpayment.

In any case MP's should be made aware of problems with the legislation they vote on. Many, sadly, are ignorant of the impact of the benefit laws they pass:
  https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/mar/21/stephen-crabb-facts-disability-aid-cuts-benefit

Parliament made all UC overpayments repayable, regardless of official error. This is different to the legacy benefits, where overpayments arising from official error were not recoverable.
https://www.turn2us.org.uk/Benefit-guides/Overpayments-under-the-Universal-Credit-system/What-if-I-don-t-think-I-ve-been-overpaid#guide-content

So, it is very important to find out why the overpayment has arisen, how it has been calculated, and if (as calcotti has indicated) providing ID info can resolve the issue.  

In addition to seeing if her MP can help, I would (if her UC journal does not tell her how it has been arrived at):
a)  Raise a mandatory reconsideration challenging the amount and calculation of the overpayment;
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/universal-credit/problems-with-your-payment/challenging-a-universal-credit-decision-mandatory-consideration/

b)  Submit a complaint that UC have not given her the information as to why the overpayment (o/p) has arisen, and how it has been calculated. This lack of basic info makes it impossible for her to establish if the o/p is correct, and has effectively denied her right to appeal an incorrect o/p.
https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-work-pensions/about/complaints-procedure

Copy all correspondence to the MP, and keep copies and notes of any UC phone calls.

As the debt has been passed to DWP Debt Management, she will need to do an Income/ Expenditure form to arrive at affordable monthly amounts. Even when disputed DWP Debt Management can continue to recover the debt.