Waiting for DWP Debt Management.

Newcad

It's over 6 months now since I reached State Pension Age and my UC ended.

At that time I still owed £159.50 on a budgeting advance that I had taken the year before.

I expected Debt Management to be quick to contact me to make arrangements to pay it off, but I haven't heard anything from them as yet.

I know that generally the DWP are slow, but Debt Management are usually the exception to that.

My question is whether anyone else has been in a similar situation of still owing on a UC advance when their UC closed?

If so then how long after your UC closed did you have to wait before Debt Management contacted you about repaying it?

TimeLord1

DWP Debt Management will eventually identify if you are receiving other qualifying DWP benefits (such as State Pension or Pension Credit). Rather than sending a standard demand letter, they may write to notify you that they intend to deduct a small amount directly from that income, or offer you a direct payment plan. I wouldn't expect anything until 2027 your probably not even on this year's radar yet. They're probably settling up last year's.

Robbie64

I did wonder if there's a backlog of cases waiting to be dealt with, especially people who have stopped claiming UC.

Newcad

Thanks both,

I do now get a full State Pension and HB + CTR/CTS, as well as a small works pension.

No Pension Crefit because I have full SP and the small works pension. (but no DLA/PIP/AA which would up the threshold).

Yep, we all know that everything in the DWP is backlogged - but from previous postings by others I expected Debt Management to be the one area who would be keen on quick recovery of outstanding amounts.

pmduk

They're probably overwhelmed with collecting overpayments made during the pandemic.

huckster

From what I have heard from a number of people in different Government departments, is that Government are looking to save at least 20% from admin costs. This is so they can maintain the spending level on what the departments core function is. Otherwise they would have to increase taxes.