Joint Claim Universal Credit / Underpayment Award

Harveyo72

I'm new here, I'll try to keep this as brief as possible. In 2015 my mum died after a long illness, I had looked after her for a number of years prior to her death, in her will I was left the house which has no mortgage. Around 6 months after she passed away I started going out again, and met a 'nice' girl, after a short dating period, she moved in with me, her son who was two years old at the time came with her, things were good for a while, even though her son was diagnosed with Autism around 2017. From the time we got the diagnosis, we have been claiming (jointly) Universal Credit. The Universal Credit takes into account her son's disability. 

Fast forward to now, we split up around 6 months ago but remained friends until a few weeks ago when we received letters from Universal Credit, the letters were sent separately as we informed them that we had split up. The letters stated that the Universal Credit had been underpaid since the beginning of the claim, and that we are now being awarded separately, a pay-out to make up for the shortfall. Her payment is £6700, my payment is £2300, but there is a note on the letter that says "this is because of the disabled child element of universal credit" - I guess we were supposed to be getting a little more due to this? 

I'd like to add at this point, that whilst she was living with me, she paid no rent. We used the money we got from benefits to live on, bills etc.. Her son trashed the house, running riot, kicking holes in doors etc.. smashing windows, generally just being really destructive. The house is in need of refurbishment because of his behaviour. 

Anyways, since she found out that I have been awarded separately, she says that i have to transfer all of that money too her, and if I don't do it, I'm going to be in a lot of trouble, her mother has already been here, trying to kick the front door down, this is the caliber of the people were dealing with here. So my question is, legally where do I stand, am I entitled to what I have been awarded?

 Thanks. Harv

 

 

 

poppy12345

If you weren't entitled to that money then DWP would not have paid it to you, they would have paid it all to her. You won't be in any trouble because the money is yours as you were underpaid.  My advice is to ignore them and hopefully they'll soon get fed up and leave you alone.

Harveyo72

poppy12345 said:

If you weren't entitled to that money then DWP would not have paid it to you, they would have paid it all to her. You won't be in any trouble because the money is yours as you were underpaid.  My advice is to ignore them and hopefully they'll soon get fed up and leave you alone.

Thanks for the reply Poppy.