Requesting Mandatory Reconsideration after time limit

mommyof3

Hello all, I am not hopeful for this but I thought I post this here  just in case someone could help.

Our UC claim was closed in October 2024 after my new job and it was all ok so far.  Then in March, we received a demand letter from DWP debt management, saying that we have an overpayment of £10,000 from Universal Credit.    

We haven't receive any overpayment advice recently.  I tried contacting UC several times and the advisers could not help since our claim is closed. After much back and forth with DWP debt management, we found out when this overpayment happened.  Now this is going to be long and convoluted: 

It appears that the overpayment was triggered when my partner was wrongly advised by his new work coach on how to report his income.  Besides counting bounce back loans as income and disallowing business expenses such as insurance and accountancy fees, the work coach also verbally told my husband to falsely input £36,000 as income into two AP.   (She refused to put this in writing when challenged).  Worried about this, we had contacted the JC manager.  Our concern was upheld and my partner was assigned a new work coach. We were able to show to the new work coach that we don't have a £36,000 extra income.

Looking back at my journal,  I can see that we were sent overpayment advice back in March 2023 in the midst of our complaint to the JC and changing over to the new work coach.  I had contacted UC via the journal twice about the overpayment within the one month time period but had no response.  We also had requested for my partner's self-employed income to be re-looked at three times but were ignored.   

From April 2023 - October 2024, all our UC payments had been made without any deductions for overpayments. Hence we do not think that we had any overpayment issues.  The recent letter from DWP was a complete surprise and it looks like the previous overpayment due to work coach error was not rectified.

I had contacted UC to explain the situation and requested a mandatory reconsideration for the overpayment. I filled up all the forms, backed with journal screenshots and sent in all the financial information to back our claim.

I now received a call from UC that they are not able to do a mandatory reconsideration since it is now beyond the one month period (back in 2023!).  I am at a loss.  I talked to the advisor from UC who just kept repeating that it is beyond the one month period and they could not offer any extension.  I am surprised by this because I have seen online that we could request extended MR based on extenuating circumstances.  

So my question, if anyone could help:

How can I request for MR on extenuating circumstances? Is my circumstances above a good enough reason? We have contacted UC at least five times via our journal to correct the errors but were ignored, and we have reason to believe that we had no overpayment since no deductions were made to our payments from April 2023 - October 2024

If I am refused this MR, can I go through a tribunal?  From what I read, tribunals can only be approached after a decision from an MR.  

I have contacted DWP and set up a low debt repayment plan whilst we tried to sort this out. Any input or advice will be welcomed.  Thank you.





 

KxMx

I would recommend speaking to a trained benefits advisor 
https://advicefinder.turn2us.org.uk/

TimeLord1

You're going to need everything that was written or sent to confirm the error wasn't on your side. 

I think building your case is the best way forward; then submit a formal complaint.

 

TimeLord1

You should also contact your local MP. 

You need a detailed breakdown of how the £10,000 overpayment was calculated. This is crucial for understanding the DWP's position and identifying any errors in their calculation. Against what was stated and requested.

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-work-pensions/about/complaints-procedure

mommyof3

TimeLord1 said:

You should also contact your local MP. 

You need a detailed breakdown of how the £10,000 overpayment was calculated. This is crucial for understanding the DWP's position and identifying any errors in their calculation. Against what was stated and requested.

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-work-pensions/about/complaints-procedure

Thank you very much for this. I am in the same mind about contacting the local MP.  I did asked about the breakdown and they were not able to give it to me

TimeLord1

You must insist they supply it; speak to your job center manager also.

Yeah, go for it. There's nothing to lose from making the MP do his job.

huckster

MR can be applied for up to a maximum of 13 months from the date of the decision..

So you should go down the complaints route and then a complaints resolution manager will be allocated. They will have the time to go through all of the information. It will be very messy, as it will involve lots of manual calculations, given that the claim is closed.

Follow the online complaints process. Pointless complaining to Job Centre, as they will say use the online process or phone the UC helpline.

sheramber

Regardless of why the overpayment arose it is repayable if it is athletically correct. 

From a previous post by  Yamor on 21 April. 

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/E

mommyof3

huckster said:

MR can be applied for up to a maximum of 13 months from the date of the decision..

So you should go down the complaints route and then a complaints resolution manager will be allocated. They will have the time to go through all of the information. It will be very messy, as it will involve lots of manual calculations, given that the claim is closed.

Follow the online complaints process. Pointless complaining to Job Centre, as they will say use the online process or phone the UC helpline.

Thank you for this. I suspect this may be the case if I were to contact UC or Jobcentre again. We had cobtacted UC many times and did not get a response mose time. It looks like a complaint is the way to go .

mommyof3

sheramber said:

Regardless of why the overpayment arose it is repayable if it is athletically correct. 

From a previous post by  Yamor on 21 April. 

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/E

Yes, I read about this and perhaps it wad naiveity on my part that the overpayment would be dealt with.  

We were in the dark about the overpayment still being pegged onto our account.  No mention was nade post change in work coach.  No deductions were made from our credits then either, which usually hapoens with overpayments or we would have dealt with it much earlier..

i’m hoping a complaint about DWP error would help.