Keeping letters

Britannia12345

How long do you keep your award letters for? I've just moved house and I have a huge box full of letters from dwp and hmrc going back years. 
I'm itching to shred them but don't want to do it if I'll need them in the future 🫣

DullGreyGuy

Law of limitations is 6 years and so most will say the prudent thing is to keep them 7 years however personally digitise them and then shred the originals. 

Robbie64

I used to have a massive pile of benefit letters, going back to the late 1990s.

In 2023, I bought a good quality HP printer with an automatic document feeder and scanned them all, arranged by benefit type and then letter type. I then shredded the actual letters.

I now keep benefit letters for a year and then shred them though there's probably no need to even keep them as I scan them as soon as I receive them.

Auti

DullGreyGuy - I thought DWP could go back as far as they wanted as overpayment is overpayment. I must admit I have kept all letters and regularly back up my UC journal so if anything said in future I still have evidence.

HillStreetBlues

Auti said:

DullGreyGuy - I thought DWP could go back as far as they wanted as overpayment is overpayment. I must admit I have kept all letters and regularly back up my UC journal so if anything said in future I still have evidence.

You are correct  DWP/ HMRC can and do go back much further than that.