Paid Universal Credit that wasn't owed to me

hels101

Because I’m in quite a bit of debt for various reasons. Just wish I hadn’t been so stupid.
hopefully I’ll learn from this costly mistake for the future.
Apologies for wasting everyone’s time.

Altior

It's not stupid or costly. If you're extremely pressed for cash, then having money in your account that you can't use can be a significant challenge.

You've taken ownership of the issue, but I feel like the problem is the poor advice that you have received in regard to potentially being able to keep the funds mistakenly paid to you, due to an error. But it doesn't remove the fact that the overpayment will need to be returned.

You may wish to consider posting a new thread in the Debt-free wannabe board. Not in regard to UC, but the underlying debt issue. If you have persistent debts you're struggling to service, they will be able to point you in the right direction.

Grumpy_chap

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81883727#Comment_81883727

You haven't wasted anyone's time.

If you received the additional money and had debt to pay down, then that makes sense. The UC processes can be unclear to a new claimant / new recipient of an award.

You are where you are, so need to look at the three options you suggested.

Option 3 is not really viable as there is no-one to take to small claims.

Option 1 would be the best and simplest but you say that you do not have the funds for this full and immediate repayment.

That only leaves Option 2 - an arrangement to pay with DWP which, as you noted, potentially will be recorded on your credit record.

Preparing a budget SoA (statement of affairs) and sharing in the DfW area of the forum, as suggested by Altior would help you in a broader sense to bring your finances under control. That might make this episode turn out as a positive overall if it can be the prompt to make that change.

I know you mentioned a concern about a plan being a mark on your credit history and impacting a potential future mortgage application. While that is true, a successful mortgage application might not be viable right now if you are already pushed with current commitments.

MSE_ForumTeam5

@hels101 we've moved all the responses so they are now in this thread. (If you're seeing this message, you are in the right place)

sammyjammy

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81883816#Comment_81883816

Nothing will be recorded on OPs credit record.

OP, tell them you don't have the money and offer to pay it monthly. I assume you can offer them the amount of the payment you were making to the credit card that you paid off? If you don't come to an agreement they can request that your employer takes it direct from your wages so its in your interests to come to an agreement.

If you clim again in the future and get an amount of money you were not expecting make sure you log into your UC account to check how they arrived at the payment, if you'd done that this time you'd have seen their were no wages taken into account.