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UC Overpayment

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  • sheramber
    sheramber Posts: 22,395 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts I've been Money Tipped! Name Dropper
    UC to double check the amount due to be paid. They did this and revised it to the correct amount. Despite all this, they still paid the original amount (too much) into our bank account. 

    Since you knew the amount was wrong  why did you not put it aside?
  • TELLIT01
    TELLIT01 Posts: 17,962 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 10,000 Posts Name Dropper PPI Party Pooper
    The claimant won't necessarily know the wrong amount is being paid to them.  If they have provided accurate information with the claim, how would they know that DWP had messed up the calculation?
    Once the rules were changed, and overpayments could be recovered irrespective of who was as fault, there was little or no incentive for DWP to worry about accuracy when processing claims.  I was still working on claims processing when the change came in, and at about the same time the number of claims we were expected to process daily increased.  Entirely coincidentally I'm sure.  When we raised concerns about not being able to make all the necessary checks to ensure accuracy, we were actually told by our manager that we (processing team members) were only judged on the number of claims processed and that any errors became the problem for other teams to address!
  • sheramber
    sheramber Posts: 22,395 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts I've been Money Tipped! Name Dropper
    TELLIT01 said:
    The claimant won't necessarily know the wrong amount is being paid to them.  If they have provided accurate information with the claim, how would they know that DWP had messed up the calculation?
    Once the rules were changed, and overpayments could be recovered irrespective of who was as fault, there was little or no incentive for DWP to worry about accuracy when processing claims.  I was still working on claims processing when the change came in, and at about the same time the number of claims we were expected to process daily increased.  Entirely coincidentally I'm sure.  When we raised concerns about not being able to make all the necessary checks to ensure accuracy, we were actually told by our manager that we (processing team members) were only judged on the number of claims processed and that any errors became the problem for other teams to address!
    The OP stated the  DWP revised the amount due but continued to pay the unrevised amount.

    Hence she knew what the revised amount was and that she was being paid a higher amount. 
  • Grumpy_chap
    Grumpy_chap Posts: 18,220 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    iklepig said:
    Hello,

    We have been overpaid UC - this is due to a DWP error and not the result of fraud or anything like that. 

    As soon as I realised this, I asked UC to double check the amount due to be paid. They did this and revised it to the correct amount. Despite all this, they still paid the original amount (too much) into our bank account. Now they are contacting us wanting us to repay X amount per
    month and it’ll take months for it to sort itself out. I really can’t deal with this stress and upset (that wasn’t even our fault).

    My question is: do I HAVE to pay it back?


    Yes, you have to pay it back.

    I am a bit confused as to how and why this is causing stress or requires a payment plan over several months.
    You state that you noted the error in the calculation and advised UC, so you knew you should receive £X.
    You actually received £Y (bigger than £X)
    When that was received, the simplest thing would seem to be to set the overpayment amount (£Y - £X) to one side and then repay in one go when the request for repayment landed.
  • born_again
    born_again Posts: 20,315 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Fifth Anniversary Name Dropper
    iklepig said:
    Hello,

    We have been overpaid UC - this is due to a DWP error and not the result of fraud or anything like that. 

    As soon as I realised this, I asked UC to double check the amount due to be paid. They did this and revised it to the correct amount. Despite all this, they still paid the original amount (too much) into our bank account. Now they are contacting us wanting us to repay X amount per
    month and it’ll take months for it to sort itself out. I really can’t deal with this stress and upset (that wasn’t even our fault).

    My question is: do I HAVE to pay it back?


    Yes, you have to pay it back.

    I am a bit confused as to how and why this is causing stress or requires a payment plan over several months.
    You state that you noted the error in the calculation and advised UC, so you knew you should receive £X.
    You actually received £Y (bigger than £X)
    When that was received, the simplest thing would seem to be to set the overpayment amount (£Y - £X) to one side and then repay in one go when the request for repayment landed.
    While I get exactly what you are saying here, & the logical reason why.

    OP has not mentioned any timescale on the overpayment, or amount involved, which given the pay X per months does not sound like a small amount. Nor the level of savings they have.

    So it is quite possible that the amount is so much it would put OP over £6K savings or that OP already had a high level of savings. Which would need reporting & effect their UC amount. 👍
    Life in the slow lane
  • sheramber
    sheramber Posts: 22,395 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts I've been Money Tipped! Name Dropper
    iklepig said:
    Hello,

    We have been overpaid UC - this is due to a DWP error and not the result of fraud or anything like that. 

    As soon as I realised this, I asked UC to double check the amount due to be paid. They did this and revised it to the correct amount. Despite all this, they still paid the original amount (too much) into our bank account. Now they are contacting us wanting us to repay X amount per
    month and it’ll take months for it to sort itself out. I really can’t deal with this stress and upset (that wasn’t even our fault).

    My question is: do I HAVE to pay it back?


    Yes, you have to pay it back.

    I am a bit confused as to how and why this is causing stress or requires a payment plan over several months.
    You state that you noted the error in the calculation and advised UC, so you knew you should receive £X.
    You actually received £Y (bigger than £X)
    When that was received, the simplest thing would seem to be to set the overpayment amount (£Y - £X) to one side and then repay in one go when the request for repayment landed.
    While I get exactly what you are saying here, & the logical reason why.

    OP has not mentioned any timescale on the overpayment, or amount involved, which given the pay X per months does not sound like a small amount. Nor the level of savings they have.

    So it is quite possible that the amount is so much it would put OP over £6K savings or that OP already had a high level of savings. Which would need reporting & affect their UC amount. 👍
    Which would get the position looked at when reported why capital had gone over limit. 
  • pmduk
    pmduk Posts: 10,681 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    NedS said:
    The Law was changed when UC was introduced allowing DWP to recover all overpayments regardless of who's fault it was. So yes, all overpayments including those due to official error are recoverable.

    Actually Gordon Brown changed it in the 2007 budget when he exempted debts owed to the Government from the statute of limitations. the Social SecurityAdministration Act, an enabling act under which all UC regulations (SIs) are tabled introduced the role that any overpayment, however incurred has to be repaid by the recipient. One of the most cruel regulations I've ever come across.
  • TimeLord1
    TimeLord1 Posts: 948 Forumite
    500 Posts Second Anniversary Photogenic Name Dropper
    If an overpayment error prevented you from receiving another payment or help that's the only complaint I have seen and it took ages to sort out 
  • Yamor
    Yamor Posts: 640 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    edited 21 April at 10:47AM
    pmduk said:
    NedS said:
    The Law was changed when UC was introduced allowing DWP to recover all overpayments regardless of who's fault it was. So yes, all overpayments including those due to official error are recoverable.

    Actually Gordon Brown changed it in the 2007 budget when he exempted debts owed to the Government from the statute of limitations. the Social SecurityAdministration Act, an enabling act under which all UC regulations (SIs) are tabled introduced the role that any overpayment, however incurred has to be repaid by the recipient. One of the most cruel regulations I've ever come across.
    This is not entirely correct.

    The Limitations Act 1980 is generally not relevant, as in the vast majority of cases, DWP do not recover by taking court action, but by using powers under the Social Security Administration Act to recover via deductions from benefits or earnings, and this is not subject to the Limitations Act.
    However, where court action is required, then the Limitations Act does apply, and the time limit is 6 years. Only tax owed to the government is not covered by the Limitations Act (and that has always been the case - it wasn't changed in 2007).

    The rule that overpayments are always recoverable was introduced in 2012 for UC, although the way the law was changed was by amending the Social Security Administration Act. It only applies to UC and new-style JSA/ESA.
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