Strange Pension Credit payment

scottleag

We've received a pension credit payment today. This is usually paid fortnightly and was received as normal last Thursday - just four days ago. Equally as strange it was for exactly £20 less than usual. If it had been for the usual amount I'd have put it down to a computer glitch and expected it to be cancelled out by non-payment on the next scheduled payment day but exactly £20 less is very odd.

I did say on another thread we'd received a letter saying they wanted to know our financial position on September 29th, three years to the day when PC started. But that letter said "Please note there is no need for you to contact us." Other people said they or relatives had received the same letter in the past but there had been no follow-up.

Nevertheless I prepared full financial details as of September 29th along with a covering letter and waited for them to get in touch. Just as had happened with others they didn't. I never heard anything more. Now this.

I can't work out a) why any payment was received at all and b) why it was £20 less. Even if they've seen our bank accounts (I don't know if they can do this or not) then our savings in excess of £10,000 plus disregards aren't enough to lose £10 per week. If they'd got in touch like they said they would then we would have had PC reduced but only by a few quid per week, 

Then the possibly paranoid thought strikes me that as they received no information for September 29th this is a final payment and they are stopping our PC even though their letter was 'don't call us, we'll call you.'

Has anyone else experienced anything like this? If so, is there any explanation?

I'm dreading the thought of the hour-long wait in the phone queue in the morning to contact them. It would be good to know if this has happened to anyone else. 

Newcad

An underpayment from 3-years ago perhaps?

Was your PC £20 less back then?

If it is a backpayment because they had underpaid you 3-years ago then that explains what the letter you posted about previously said.

Ie. They were thinking that they may have owed you more, - but reassuring you that if you did povide details that showed you had in fact been overpaid then they wouldn't chase it.

You didn't provide any details so they have now paid you what they originally thought you had been underpaid.

I expect that you will get a letter explaining it this week or next (or later as it's christmas post time). Monies for backpayments often hit your bank acvount while the letter explaining them is still in the post to you.

scottleag

Newcad said:

An underpayment from 3-years ago perhaps?

Was your PC £20 less back then?

If it is a backpayment because they had underpaid you 3-years ago then that explains what the letter you posted about previously said.

Ie. They were thinking that they may have owed you more, - but reassuring you that if you did povide details that showed you had in fact been overpaid then they wouldn't chase it.

You didn't provide any details so they have now paid you what they originally thought you had been underpaid.

I expect that you will get a letter explaining it this week or next (or later as it's christmas post time). Monies for backpayments often hit your bank acvount while the letter explaining them is still in the post to you.

Thanks Newcad for both your reply and linking from the previous thread. I started a new thread as I thought this was an unrelated issue. It turns out it isn't as I received a letter today. Alas, it isn't a back payment. Astonishingly it's a reply to my letter informing them of going over the savings limit written in FEBRUARY 2024, twenty-one months ago!

They are saying the new reduced sum is based on the information I gave them then. They haven't taken disregards into account as by my calculations the reduction should be £3 per week based on details submitted then, not £10. But if disregards are not included then the sum of £10 per week is correct. 

They say they will automatically reclaim the payment made Nov 20th and new payment will apply from Dec 4th so the payment schedule remains the same. Why they had to issue a payment yesterday then reclaim the payment made last Thursday I have no idea. I would have thought it would have been easier to deduct £20 from the next payment.

Still, at least they're not trying to reclaim £10 pw from Feb 2024 to date, But I still say they should have taken the disregards as they stood in Feb 2024 into account and they are taking £7 pw more than they should be.

Or were. Based on the current situation they should be taking £8 pw off after disregards.

It gets even worse. The letter received today says "Please forward these details by the. If we do not receive a reply by this date then your Pension Credit may be affected." THERE IS NO DATE. There is nothing after 'the.' I'm sorely tempted to leave well alone considering the farce this has become. Then if they revise payments further downwards I will respond as I am still below the £10 they are now starting to deduct.

scottleag

Newcad said:

I've re-read the DWP letter and it appears the paragraph with the unnamed date for the unnamed requirements should be the last paragraph not second last as it is in their letter. They are asking for bank statements from March 1st this year, almost nine months ago. That's going to run to well over 1,000 pages. And this in response to what I sent them in February 2024 and a telephone conversation yesterday in which I was told I had nothing to do. To be sent by an unspecified date.

And the section the letter came from is marked 'MORTGAGES' 

Absolutely lunatic