Old housing benefit overpayment

midge1971

I'm not entirely sure if this is the right place to post this but basically, 20 odd years ago I lived in Northamptonshire, there was a period where I got married, but my partner/new husband didn't live with me, (he was tied into a tenancy and it was closer to his work) he Was working, but I was claiming benefits.Then finally, he did move in with me about a year later.

I then had a call from housing benefit to say that they believed I was fraudulently claiming, I went for an interview told them about the fact that although I was married , we hadn't lived together and they decided against me and that I needed to repay it. OK.

We then moved away and Over the next 15 years, I had one letter from them with an amount on it. I was paying it back at a very small amount again, I wasn't working but it was paid every month out of my old bank account which I no longer have access to.

Fast forward 20 years my husband and i split up. I moved away and again was on benefits. Obviously then it all links up. They were claiming money back from my universal credit. For the overpayment, this has been going on now for 10 plus years. I contacted the old council where I used to live, which is now merged with a new council and they couldn't find any record of the original debt, but sent me through a invoice saying that there was still a couple of 1000 pounds left on it. Which appeared to be more than the original debt was. (I was in council housing at the time, so it wasn't a high rent.) I have no record of any of the old payments or what my old rent was or the original debt. However, I've now received another debt on my universal credit from Corby council of another £2000 pounds. I've never lived in Corby. I have no connection to Corby, and I don't know how I can trace this debt because when I've rung them but without any sort of customer number or details, they can't give me any details of the debt. Universal credit just keep telling me to gain in touch with the council and they're the ones claiming the debt from my universal credit.

so the original debt was about a year's worth of housing benefit , with a rent of £480 pcm

MissFlossy222

Have you spoken to DWP Debt Management? They should be able to give you details of the debt.

Their number is 0800 916 0647.

rosewalk

I would advise you to try speaking to Debt Management but in my experience they aren't very helpful claiming that they are only able to provide limited details of any debt beyond telling you which benefit that this relates to. If they can't help I would advise contacting Citizens Advice, Welfare Rights Unit or similar advice organisation in your local area for support.

HillStreetBlues

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82139579#Comment_82139579

That's the trouble with them acting as judge, jury & executioner and bypassing the normal method of reclaiming a debt.

sgthammer

Two different issues here.

English local government is notoriously complicated, with district councils, parish councils, county councils and mayoralties overlapping all over the place with no consistency at all. Wikipedia reveals (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corby#Politics) that following the abolition of the old Northamptonshire County Council due to bankruptcy in 2018-21 Corby is now the administrative seat of North Northamptonshire, although confusingly there's also still a separate Corby Town Council for some reason. It may not be clear exactly which organisation acting a successor to the old County Council has approached the DWP in your case. It sounds like they might even both be chasing it independently, so it's well worth clearing that up.

On the actual sums, a year at £480 pcm is £5760 in total, so "a couple of 1000" wouldn't be more than the original debt, although even at 5 or 10 quid a month you should have cleared it over a decade. What happened to the old bank account you were originally repaying from? You need to get a breakdown of what you owed and what you've paid, and if neither organisation will give you one, get their refusal in writing and show that to the DWP.

LightFlare

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82139667#Comment_82139667

at £10 a month - £5700 would take almost 50years to pay off

Depending on how much the OP was paying per month - 2k remaining is very possible

sgthammer

Oops yes. My dodgy maths strikes again. Mea culpa.

OP should still get a proper breakdown of the accounts though.

midge1971

The old bank account was over 15 years ago, I did contact them but they only have records for five years. my rent at the time was 62 pounds a week and I remember the original letter was just over a thousand pound owing. I have managed to contact somebody at the council there now somebody did track it down and said that it should have been cancelled but because everything was being digitalised it hadn't been he apologized and said that I was owed rebate of about 800 pounds he said hang on I'll ring you back in a minute when he rang me back he was very cagey and said that he shouldn't have told me how much money was owed back to me because he couldn't trace it all the way back to the original debt and that somebody else would get in touch that was two weeks ago still waiting