DWP Debt Management letter

Bill_Shakespeare

Hi guys,

Out of the blue today I’ve received a letter from the DWP saying I owe them £66.66. Had absolutely no idea what it was for so I logged in and apparently o was given a UC advance back in February of 2018 whilst waiting for my new job to start.

Why is now the first time they’ve contacted me about this in almost four years? And I assume I have to pay it?

poppy12345

They are catching up with older debt that's owed from a lot of people. As you realise you do owe it then you will of course need to repay it back.

Robbie64

DWP Debt Management are currently chasing historic debts going back a decade or more (in some cases to the 90s) so by that standard, 2018 is fairly recent!

didsy1

Bill_Shakespeare said:

Hi guys,

Out of the blue today I’ve received a letter from the DWP saying I owe them £66.66. Had absolutely no idea what it was for so I logged in and apparently o was given a UC advance back in February of 2018 whilst waiting for my new job to start.

Why is now the first time they’ve contacted me about this in almost four years? And I assume I have to pay it?

Bill we get them every year for my wife for the last 7-8 years the collection department never detail where or why the moneys owed, when I moved in we qualified for £18 per week tax credits until I done some over time literally had it for a few weeks when it was stopped if it was that we owed then we have paid it back ten fold.

I don’t understand how an organisation can just send a letter saying you owe money without explaining what you owe it for when you owe it and make you aware of other outstanding debts.

The sums of money are not huge £126 if it carries on this way when I reach retirement I would of paid thousands.

It’s the HMRC it will get paid but for reasons unknown

poppy12345

didsy1 said:

Bill_Shakespeare said:

Hi guys,

Out of the blue today I’ve received a letter from the DWP saying I owe them £66.66. Had absolutely no idea what it was for so I logged in and apparently o was given a UC advance back in February of 2018 whilst waiting for my new job to start.

Why is now the first time they’ve contacted me about this in almost four years? And I assume I have to pay it?

Bill we get them every year for my wife for the last 7-8 years the collection department never detail where or why the moneys owed, when I moved in we qualified for £18 per week tax credits until I done some over time literally had it for a few weeks when it was stopped if it was that we owed then we have paid it back ten fold.

I don’t understand how an organisation can just send a letter saying you owe money without explaining what you owe it for when you owe it and make you aware of other outstanding debts.

The sums of money are not huge £126 if it carries on this way when I reach retirement I would of paid thousands.

It’s the HMRC it will get paid but for reasons unknown

This thread is 18 months old so hopefully the OP has now sorted the debt.

peteuk

didsy1 said:

Bill we get them every year for my wife for the last 7-8 years the collection department never detail where or why the moneys owed, when I moved in we qualified for £18 per week tax credits until I done some over time literally had it for a few weeks when it was stopped if it was that we owed then we have paid it back ten fold.

I don’t understand how an organisation can just send a letter saying you owe money without explaining what you owe it for when you owe it and make you aware of other outstanding debts.

The sums of money are not huge £126 if it carries on this way when I reach retirement I would of paid thousands.

It’s the HMRC it will get paid but for reasons unknown

The simple explanation for this is in the way tax credit works.

You tell them your expected earning for the year, they work out your tc and decide by 12. At the end of the year you tell them or they work out your actual earnings for the year and recalculate how much they should have paid then the out come is either.
They have paid you too much, just right or not enough.

For example if you earn £10K TC £12K (Not real figures) then you’ll get £1K TC a month.  End of year it works out your paid £16K (over time or pay rise) then they recalculate TC to £6K, you owe them £6K

Any changes during the year should be reported and will trigger a recalculation.

Two months in and new job earns £24K then TC is zero for the year, but you've had £2K… you owe them £2K

If you owe them they should either take it from your next years claim or advise you owe them.  They don’t really chase them much until debt recovery action kicks in.  Eg they write and tell you but then wait for debt recovery which can take years.

This is one of the reasons behind the push to UC as it works out payment on your monthly wage, so if you do extra overtime the claim reduces.