Backdated Occupational Pension

Yamor

I disagree with the Rightsnet post.

The rule for ir-ESA is that income paid late is treated as having been received on its due date - see reg. 93(1), and therefore an overpayment is potentially recoverable under s. 71 of the SSAA 1992.

Furthermore, even where s. 71 does not apply, say because there was no misrepresentation by the claimant, DWP could still rely on s. 74 of the SSAA 1992 to recover any ESA paid out because the pension was only paid late.

The fact that the income was only actually received after the claimant reached pension age has no relevance to all of this. The rule about pension income not being included as notional income where the claimant is under pension age is only for the NOTIONAL income rule. Here, we are dealing with ACTUAL income received (albeit late).

The only other point to make is that if the pension arrears are received after the ir-ESA claim has ended, then in practice you are more likely to get away with it, because the ESA claim has already ended. But that doesn't change the legal position.

The author of the post you quote from Rightsnet has mixed up the rules for actual income with those for notional income. See also the post before that from Elliot Kent which alludes to this difference between actual income and notional income.