DWP want £10k Pension credit back! HELP!

mollytherocker

Hi

My parents (both 65) have had a visit from the Dept for Work & Pensions today and they have been told that they have been overpaid £10100.20 in Pension credit for the period 21/6/04 to 21/1/07!

They said this is because my father was recieving incapacity benefit. However, they were advised they were entitled to this by the CAB and the DWP at the time and were helped in filling out the forms.

What can they do? Do they really have to pay up? Surely this is the DWPs error?

Molly

lil_me

Contact Welfare Rights and CAB they would be able to advise best, I am sure there is more info necessary to advise correctly than can be shared on a forum. Usually any overpayments are recovered.

tatiepot

Molly, the fact they were advised by CAB and DWP stands in their favour, get in touch with both concerns , if possible get copies of any info regarding their claim at that time. Tell your parents not to worry also, if necessary and those involved cannot come up with the info, they will organise paying them back, hopefully at £5 per week.

bigbill

I doubt they will have to pay anything back as its clearly DWP official error and non-recoverable.

The Pension Credit application does not ask anything about what benefits you have as they know already so you can in no way be expected to know.

bigheadxx

You should get full written reasons from the DWP as to why they believe there has been an overpayment. Not all overpayments have to be paid back. In the case of an administrative error by the DWP it does not have to be paid back but they may not tell you this. If they believe that you should have know that you had been overpaid they may try and use the common law to recover it.

The CAB should also be able to check entitlement to any other benefits which may not have been claimed and this could reduce the amount of the overpayment.

You should also make sure that Pension Credit amount has been worked out using the Net income figure not gross.