Universal credit bizarre situation

Bully86

Hi, I hope someone can help me and I've posted in the right place. I'll try to keep it brief.

Me and my wife receive universal credit as my wife doesn't earn enough and I can't work at the moment and we have 2 children.

A normal month we would get around £800 universal credit, however this month we received only £200 as a large logistics company has reported I earned £1120 last month, I've never worked for them in my life and did not receive this money.

I've tried explaining to UC but everyone over the phone seems incompetent to be honest and they have referred it to the payments investigation team, I phoned the logistics company and they said a new employee used my National insurance number by mistake and the payment bounced back to them, phoned HMRC to ask why it was still reported as earnings in my name - to be told I would have to speak to the logistics company.

I've been back and forth between UC and the logistics company to no avail.

Me and my wife are getting desperate now as it's been 8 days since the reduced payment and we'll certainly incur charges for late payments, food is going to be a struggle as well the gas and electric as we're on meters.

I don't know if this is too complex to get help here but I don't know who to blame or complain to?

Any help is much appreciated!

NedS

You need to ask UC to raise an RTI dispute on your behalf, and explain the situation.

Under the RTI dispute, the RTI team will contact the employer to confirm the reported earnings. If the employer confirm that the reported earnings were paid in error then UC can ignore the report. If the employer is not contactable, or will not confirm a mistake, DWP will just go with the reported information and you will have a battle on your hands.

It is the responsibility of the company to ensure all earnings are reported accurately and on time. The employer would have most likely reported the payment to HMRC before actually making the payment to the employee (during the payroll run), before they realised there may be an issue. The employer will now need to report a correction to HMRC.

UC simply act on the information provided to them from HMRC, who in turn are simply passing on the information reported by the employer. It is the employer who is at fault.

Bully86

Thank you so much for the advice, I've explained on my journal and over the phone and I've now stated I want to raise an RTI dispute on my journal also.

I'll give the employer another call tomorrow as they still haven't got back to me when they promised me they'd get it sorted ASAP when I explained my situation.

Think it's pretty disgusting that just by using someone else's NI number by accident, it's screwed my family over so much, especially as we've done nothing wrong.

Again thanks for the help.

powerspowers

What a mess! Agree with advice above. 

I’d also put in your journal that you need help with money for food (although I doubt that would make a difference) and contact your local council to see if they have a crisis/emergency payment scheme. 

huckster

Not sure why the logistics company can't just remove the entry against the NI number and provide confirmation in writing that they have completed this action. And once done the DWP RTI team can confirm with HMRC that the earnings data has been removed.

Bully86

Just an update: had a message on my journal to say we were underpaid £616 this month, however as we had an outstanding debt ( we pay it back every month) the money has gone to debt management team first to see if they want the money to pay off the debt and then they will refund us what is left.

Phoned debt management to be told there is a back log and we won't get any money until at least March and couldn't tell us how much they will take but the lady assumed it would just be the normal monthly amount (around £60).

Apparently this is all normal procedure and they have to follow the process although the debt management lady did agree this was an unusual situation. 

So essentially it feels like we're being punished for something we didn't do, I was under the impression that it would be breaking the law to take this money from us as this the amount the government says we need to live on, but I'm more than likely wrong.

Thanks for the help from all of you so far, guess we just have to wait and scrape through till March 

NedS

OK, so first up good news that you appear to have got the RTI issue fixed and they've acknowledged an underpayment.

They are correct in what they say, that when there is an underpayment, they can first look at reducing of paying off any debt owed - they do not really consider how the overpayment was derived. However, they should take into consideration whether taking the full overpayment for repayment of debt would put you in hardship - I would push this argument with them that they would be leaving you in a position where you haven't received any income in the month, and because of the incorrect earnings data, you also haven't received any UC for the month, so what do they expect you to live on. Presumably you already have a reasonable repayment plan in place to repay the debt?

Robbie64

NedS said:

OK, so first up good news that you appear to have got the RTI issue fixed and they've acknowledged an underpayment.

They are correct in what they say, that when there is an underpayment, they can first look at reducing of paying off any debt owed - they do not really consider how the overpayment was derived. However, they should take into consideration whether taking the full overpayment for repayment of debt would put you in hardship - I would push this argument with them that they would be leaving you in a position where you haven't received any income in the month, and because of the incorrect earnings data, you also haven't received any UC for the month, so what do they expect you to live on. Presumably you already have a reasonable repayment plan in place to repay the debt?

I read the reply above yours as meaning they were already repaying the debt at about £60 per month (see second paragraph).

Bully86

Hi, yes they were happy with the current repayment plan of £60 a month, I think there is roughly £1200 left to pay off. We have to phone back next week for an update.

I still find it incredibly frustrating that we have to chase this and struggle through with no money, can't help but feel like there should be something in place to help people in these situations.

HillStreetBlues

Bully86 said:

I still find it incredibly frustrating that we have to chase this and struggle through with no money, can't help but feel like there should be something in place to help people in these situations.

I agree.
The "system" must share some of the blame.
How in this day and age,  someone unknown to you gives the wrong NI number  that leads to you not getting a benefit payment, shows there aren't enough checks done.