COL Overpayment: Paying Back

Riverstone58

Hello!

I was given a COL payment (£300) towards the back end of 2023 when I was claiming UC which it now transpires I wasn't entitled to.

My UC claim was closed in August of last year due to my reaching SP age but yesterday afternoon I received a text from UC to read a message in my journal. Attached was a form UCD694 advising that I wasn't in fact entitled to the COL payment covering the AP 18-08-23 to 17.09.23.

This was all due to a late reporting of employer earnings which is now showing in amended statements with what should have been the correct dates. These show they were amended in October 2023 so it's only taken 18 months for them to spot this, but as these were in that AP for COL when my UC payment now shows as zero they naturally want the £300 back.

So am I correct in saying that I will next be contacted by the debt management team and any ideas how long this process takes?

I'm currently in the middle of a financial crises, mainly due to delays in the issuing of an HMRC tax refund cheque which as now got to be reprocessed as of yesterday. My sole source of income is my (full) state pension and because of this delay I'm not now going to be in a position to start any repayments until I receive my SP in the first week of June which obviously isn't good.

Essentially does anyone have any idea how long it might take for them to start taking compulsory payments from my SP should it ever come to that? My next SP is next week, then first week of May then June.

I'm sorry if this might have rambled on a bit but my mind is not what it was and I really struggle to do this on a mobile phone, but thank you so much for any help or advice available.

Ayr_Rage

You could get your SP payments changed to weekly which would help your cashflow

Riverstone58

Ayr_Rage said:

You could get your SP payments changed to weekly which would help your cashflow

I thought of doing that after I started receiving my SP but I was happy with it how it is.

However it's something I might go back to once all these and other messes are (hopefully) sorted out as it wouldn't be a good idea at the moment but thanks all the same.

Brie

I've never heard of them docking SP for historical mistakes in UC payments.  Not saying it doesn't happen of course.

I would suggest you might want to draw up your budget, income and all the normal expenditures to show them how much (or little) you have available to pay this money back.  Possibly offer them £1 a month or something.  DWP is less forgiving then some creditors on other matters but they might allow this as showing willing.  Or they may come back with a counter offer.  

I wonder if you would be eligible (albeit temporarily) for pension credits if paying them back takes you below the qualifying income level.

NedS

If there has been an overpayment of working age benefits and working age benefits are no longer in payment from which to collect repayments, then the debt is passed to debt management for repayment. If the individual refuses to agree repayment terms then debt management can make deductions from wages or State Pension if it is in payment, so no reason why deductions could not be taken out of State Pension.

And no, because these are debt repayment deductions, the full amount before any deductions would be considered for any Pension Credit award, the same as if the individual was repaying credit card debt or any other incurred debt.