repaying DWP by cheque

Brie · 27 June 2022 at 1:18PM

MiL went in to hospital and we kept expecting her to come out. When that didn't happen I rang up DWP to advise them so they could stop her attendance allowance. After a lot of huffing about why hadn't MiL rung them as soon as she was in hospital (she couldn't, she was ill and incoherent as well as not understanding why it would be required at the best of times) they agreed that her AA would have to stop and there might in fact be some to be repaid. They then sent a letter asking MiL (still in hospital, not very coherent, unable to write) to fill out a form to explain why it took so long to advise them. I filled this out on her behalf, adding a note as to why and returned that.

Today I/she has received a demand for repayment of 1 week's worth of AA. No problem, there's money in the bank and I understand completely why this needs to be repaid.

What surprises me though is that there is no provision to send them a cheque. Given that the majority of individuals on AA are presumably older and more likely to still use cheques than those of us who do online banking it seems odd that this isn't considered a viable option. I understand why any business prefers internet payments but the only alternative to that is to go to the post office (difficult if one isn't very mobile) or ring them up to pay (difficult if one has problems with hearing, sight etc).

Any idea what would happen if I went ahead and used their freepost envelope to send them a cheque? Sheer cussedness on my part of course but would they reject it?

Alice_Holt · 27 June 2022 at 1:49PM

Brie said:

Any idea what would happen if I went ahead and used their freepost envelope to send them a cheque? Sheer cussedness on my part of course but would they reject it?

My guess would be that there would be confusion, with more letters from the DWP requiring your time and attention - during a period when, frankly, you are likely to have more important things to deal with.

If you feel strongly about cheque use, then make that point to your MP.

TELLIT01 · 27 June 2022 at 3:20PM

If you do go down the cheque route make sure you put all your MiL's details on the back. Full name and address, NI number or pension reference number and staple the cheque to the covering letter. Don't just paper clip it on. I would enclose a copy of any letter from the Pension Service and include that too. They aren't being terribly helpful or understanding in sending out letters to her berating her for not informing them earlier. To be fair to the Pension Service, they were very good when I was handing things following the death of various family members, but you get good and bad everywhere.

calcotti · 27 June 2022 at 3:22PM

I think the Pension Service generally seems to still be in meltdown given the ongoing delays in processing new claims.

Brie · 27 June 2022 at 3:24PM

Well I can't find MiL's cheque book anywhere (probably lost in the move 4 years back) so have done the sensible thing and paid online directly from her account. I did consider using one of my cheques but would have had to move the money so just made it simple.

fyi - completely legal - I have 3rd party access.

toomuchinfo · 27 June 2022 at 7:20PM

When my uncle had to pay some back last year due to a hospital stay the took it out of his state pension payments. This was much easier than repaying any other way.