DWP chasing me

IMASMARTIE22

hello everyone
hoping for some common sense advise please,i have received a letter from DWP regarding a benefit over payment.
1/ the debit is almost 28. years old [i have no paper work apart from this letter]
2/they have never taken any money off me via wages in 28 years they have now applied for attachment of earnings.job is never same amount of hours each week usually less than 15 hours 
3/ can they still chase me? 
4/ i also did 12 months in jail [nearly] 18 month sentence [there's more personal stuff not going into]
5/ i'm almost 66 don't really need all the hassle  I have tried phoning them got no common sense out of them [over paid thugs] I have never been in trouble since always worked 
6/ Can they chase me for this debit? isn't there a time limited 
7/ how do i go about finding Help? solicitor? 
advise would be appreciated
thankyou 

  

marcia_

IMASMARTIE22 said:

hello everyone
hoping for some common sense advise please,i have received a letter from DWP regarding a benefit over payment.
1/ the debit is almost 28. years old [i have no paper work apart from this letter]
2/they have never taken any money off me via wages in 28 years they have now applied for attachment of earnings.job is never same amount of hours each week usually less than 15 hours 
3/ can they still chase me? 
4/ i also did 12 months in jail [nearly] 18 month sentence [there's more personal stuff not going into]
5/ i'm almost 66 don't really need all the hassle  I have tried phoning them got no common sense out of them [over paid thugs] I have never been in trouble since always worked 
6/ Can they chase me for this debit? isn't there a time limited 
7/ how do i go about finding Help? solicitor? 
advise would be appreciated
thankyou 

  

  i think there is no time limit for them claiming benefits overpayment. Though you can ask them to prove how you owe it. 

Danien

Was the prison sentence for benefit fraud?

I don't mean to intrude on what you've said is personal. The reason I ask is that if the debt is from benefit fraud then yes, as far as I’m aware they can chase the debt for as long as they like. I make no judgements, people make mistakes. It's good that you managed to turn your life around, but the debt will still stay - It's bad form that it's taken so long for them to recover, but recover they will.

For any DWP debt if it is due to a mistake the claimant made, they can ask for the money back, make an attachment of earnings, or take money from benefits you're receiving. If you disagree with the debt, then you can request a mandatory reconsideration of the decision and take it to appeal.

If it's due to an error that the DWP made that long ago then you request the debt be written off as an official error as it is not recoverable.  Unfortunately this no longer applies to universal credit and new style jsa and esa (wouldn’t apply to you 28 years ago).

Yes, if it was your error, they can continue to chase you and if they haven't recovered from your wages by the time you get your state pension, they can recover from that. All you can do is try to negotiate the amount. I would advise you get help from citizens advice or a welfare rights organisation to negotiate on your behalf.

Ayr_Rage

The last comment in 5 doesn't quite gel with what happened in 4.

What were you claiming 28 years ago that they are trying to recover?

poppy12345

Danien said:

Was the prison sentence for benefit fraud?

I don't mean to intrude on what you've said is personal. The reason I ask is that if the debt is from benefit fraud then yes, as far as I’m aware they can chase the debt for as long as they like. 

Even if it wasn't from benefit fraud they can still chase the debt because there's no time limit. 

Danien

poppy12345 said:

Danien said:

Was the prison sentence for benefit fraud?

I don't mean to intrude on what you've said is personal. The reason I ask is that if the debt is from benefit fraud then yes, as far as I’m aware they can chase the debt for as long as they like. 

Even if it wasn't from benefit fraud they can still chase the debt because there's no time limit. 

Yep, I did say that as well in the next paragraph. 

The reason I made the distinction was because if he was found guilty of benefit fraud then attempting to challenge the overpayment is unlikely to be successful on grounds that the overpayment itself or the amount is incorrect.

On the other hand if it is just a general overpayment them it may be worth trying to challenge it.

If it was official error from 28 years ago, I would write to the DWP telling them it is unrecoverable under benefit law.

IMASMARTIE22

thanks for comments yes it was fraud hence the prison sentence, however the law back then [Was different] i.e prison supposed to have cleared the debit .
i was claiming benefits, probably the money your entitled to if not working maybe housing benefit, 
as i said im not opening up my past. i was told by the Barrister in court if they come after you for money get back in touch.
not a clue who he was. 
thanks  
maybe best seeking legal advise
just spoke to solicitor apparently its 6 years will keep everyone posted once i have seen him

peteuk

IMASMARTIE22 said:

thanks for comments yes it was fraud hence the prison sentence, however the law back then [Was different] i.e prison supposed to have cleared the debit .
i was claiming benefits, probably the money your entitled to if not working maybe housing benefit, 
as i said im not opening up my past. i was told by the Barrister in court if they come after you for money get back in touch.
not a clue who he was. 
thanks  
maybe best seeking legal advise
just spoke to solicitor apparently its 6 years will keep everyone posted once i have seen him

6 years is for general debt, at which point it drops off your credit file and the company or debt collectors can not take legal action against you to claim it back. 

DWP/HMRC are not bound by this, as they can take overpayments via current benefits or direct from wages without taking legal action.  As noted above there is no time limitation for them to take this action. 

My advice would be to find out when the overpayment occurred (its easy to assume it is linked to your fraud case but Id double check, in case its a separate overpayment) 
Check for certain what you are claiming - this is important as it will indicate who you are claiming it from.  It will also help others add to the advice given. 

Danien

IMASMARTIE22 said:

thanks for comments yes it was fraud hence the prison sentence, however the law back then [Was different] i.e prison supposed to have cleared the debit .
i was claiming benefits, probably the money your entitled to if not working maybe housing benefit, 
as i said im not opening up my past. i was told by the Barrister in court if they come after you for money get back in touch.
not a clue who he was. 
thanks  
maybe best seeking legal advise
just spoke to solicitor apparently its 6 years will keep everyone posted once i have seen him

I can't speak to the circumstances of your conviction, but as far as I’m aware (I didn't start working in benefits until about 24 years ago) the debt could in some circumstances be written off as part of a deal at the time of prosecution, but unless this is done at the time, the debt still stands. I of course can't be absolutely certain as it was another 4 years before I was working in the field.

The criminal cases we dealt with used to have two components - the solicitor and barrister dealing with the criminal component and we would help deal with the benefit debt component. Sadly, solicitors and barristers often have very poor knowledge of benefit law, it wasn't their specialist area and they often gave very bad advice on the benefits part of the issue.

 We would check that the overpayment had been calculated correctly (most of the time it hadn't been and could be reduced) and we would also help setting up an affordable payment plan post prosecution, including post prison if necessary. Most people I worked with were rather desperate and vulnerable when they committed the fraud and very much regretted it. There were some seriously harrowing situations where I very much disagreed with the imprisonment, but it is what it is and as I said, the criminal arena isn't my area.

There are several possibilities here.

Either there was a deal where your debt would be written off, or your barrister was correct about the law, in which case you would need to proof of that agreement to present to the DWP to stop the recovery. I don’t know how you would go about it if you don't have documentation - I'm not sure if the solicitor or barrister would have kept the documentation from that long ago. 

The other possibility is you were given incorrect information by your solicitor or barrister.

Either way, you should write to the DWP by signed for delivery putting forward your case that as far as you were aware the debt had been written off as part of the prosecution. Ask them to check their records to confirm this. Tell them you were told by by your legal representative that benefit law said that the debt would be written off because you received a prison sentence. Ask them to confirm what benefit law said at the time of your prosecution. They should be able to tell you what the law was back then. Ask them to cease recovery and then write off the debt as originally agreed. As I said I wasn't working in benefits then, so I can't be certain what the law was then, but I do have a lot of experience of poor benefits advice from solicitors and barristers.

If it turns out that it wasn’t benefit law 28 years ago to write off the debt and you can't prove a write off was part of the deal made following prosecution, then you would need to negotiate an affordable repayment plan. Put together your income and expenditure and show what you can afford to pay. You may need to justify excessive non essential outgoings, but most people on low incomes don't really have those.

Danien

peteuk said:

IMASMARTIE22 said:

thanks for comments yes it was fraud hence the prison sentence, however the law back then [Was different] i.e prison supposed to have cleared the debit .
i was claiming benefits, probably the money your entitled to if not working maybe housing benefit, 
as i said im not opening up my past. i was told by the Barrister in court if they come after you for money get back in touch.
not a clue who he was. 
thanks  
maybe best seeking legal advise
just spoke to solicitor apparently its 6 years will keep everyone posted once i have seen him

6 years is for general debt, at which point it drops off your credit file and the company or debt collectors can not take legal action against you to claim it back. 

DWP/HMRC are not bound by this, as they can take overpayments via current benefits or direct from wages without taking legal action.  As noted above there is no time limitation for them to take this action. 

My advice would be to find out when the overpayment occurred (its easy to assume it is linked to your fraud case but Id double check, in case its a separate overpayment) 
Check for certain what you are claiming - this is important as it will indicate who you are claiming it from.  It will also help others add to the advice given. 

Good advice about checking it is for that specific debt.

Robbie64

From my experience of working in the 1980s for what was then the equivalent of the DWP, when someone was imprisoned for benefit fraud, the amount was written off to ensure a fresh start for the person on release. However, this was for cases prosecuted under Social Security law. I don't know if this applied to cases tried under the Theft Act (these were prosecuted by the police at the time, I don't know what the situation is now or even back in the 1990s) and I don't know if the OP in this thread was prosecuted under Social Security law or under something like the Theft Act.

If the amount that the DWP is chasing is considerable it might be worth taking legal advice if the sums being chased are connected with the reasons why the OP was prosecuted.