Massive 15k Incapacity Overpayment - HELP

[mcd2703]

Hi

I have been in receipt of incap for several years and at the time of applying I told them about an insurance policy my previous employer had for me (it was the insurance company that told me to apply for incap). They deduct the amount of long term incap from the monthly benefits they pay me.

As far as I was concerned they were aware of it, they were told on several telephone calls about it and that was it. I was never advised that I had to do anthing at all.

I phoned them last year upon reading a booklet I had been sent asking me to tell them about any changes. I still don't know why I continued reading it, as it was talking about pension payments, one of the items on the list was permanent health insurance, I thought this sounded like a bit like what I had so I went on the net and then phoned to check with dwp. I was told no then when I asked for the name of who I was speaking with she asked me to hold then I was told to write in the with details of my policy. I then received a notice advising my new incap rate, which I didn't dispute. I called and was advised as it was their error their would be no collection of overpayment, this was a phone call I have no evidence. I gave DWP permission to contact the insurance company to satisfy themselves with the policy.

My insurance policy is not called a permanent health insurance or a pension, and I was supposed to know that! I then got a form a few weeks ago asking about my insurance payments, I filled it in then got another letter saying that I had been overpayed. Then another letter came yesterday saying I owed £15,000 and they wanted it back. It made it sound that this was the first they had heard about and ignored the fact that this had been looked at last year and sorted out.

Apparently the law change in April 2001 which was just a few months before my incap started, if my benefit had started in April rather than Sept, then there would be no overpayment.

I'm sick with worry, I will fight it, but I don't know if I have any chance against the goliath that is DWP.

Does anyone know what the rules are on how much they can make you pay back a month, i.e. what is it based on is there a scale somewhere? I want to be prepared for the worse case scenario.

Also from when they are notified of overpayment how long do they have to contact you? They were notifed in February last year about this and waited over a year to deal with it. I've been receiving the correct money since March last year.

Any help advice or any ideas where I can look for advice or info, would be very very much appreciated, I haven't slept all night and suspect it will this way for a while. I've been told if I appeal it can take many months!!!

Thanks in advance for any help.

Michael

[emmaf01]

It would probably be a good idea to get professional advice- from a specialist solicitor. Find one who specialises in benefit cases/fraud. And don't be scared of the f word- it just means they are a specialist in benefit law. Your local council welfare rights officer may be able to help up to a point, but a solicitor might be more effective.

Perhaps a Subject Access Request to the DWP to find out if there are any notes from when you previously notified them. Also your IB application forms should be helpful. You can never have too much information.

And resign yourself- this will take a while to sort out. It always does with the DWP.

[Zamzara]

Don't miss the time limit to appeal. Get proper advice straight away, as above.


If you notified them of everything, you should be ok. Unlike housing benefit and tax credits, DWP-administered benefits are only recoverable if the overpayment was caused by giving false information or failing to notify a change.

[mcd2703]

Thanks for your advice.

Have notified them of intent to appeal. They have lost original application form yet are pursuing this based on the application form which beggars belief.

Will wait and see what happens, might be entitled to a huge tax refund if I need to pay DWP back, so that might cancel out some of the debt. Still don't believe I owe the money so haven't accepted that I will have to pay yet - the fight continues!

Michael

[DAVECASTER]

Hello everybody, we too have a similar problem with DWP overpayment,
My partner has worked part time for a number of years declaring her earnings to DWP sending payslips ect; then in September last year she was hauled in front of the fraud squad told to stop collecting all benefitsthat she was working an un declared 2 hours a week!!, turned out true but was unintentional, so they have asked for 2 years benefits back £9k that means we would have had to live on £110 a week for the last 2 years, had to pay £1750 housing benefit back as well as rates and water rates and they want it by the 13/08/08 wrote numerouseletters and they are not budging ...pay or court, my partner has had to work self employed and there is no help i am 30% disabled due to industrial injury and cannot walk, my son is disabled and qualifies for nothing he is 20, life is very difficult if that was not enough we are getting harrassed and intimidated by a company called Intrum Injutitia with letters and phone calls for a debt dating back to 1997 we pay £20 a month for, you have my sympathy with the Dwp i will read anything with interest, you have to have a sense of humor because if you don't you will end up walking off a cliff, look at all the money successive governments have wasted, if you struggle you are made tostruggle more,best of luck

[emmaf01]

Dave, if your partner has supplied all the information to the DWP and they have made the mistake then it is their problem, not yours.

Perhaps getting in touch with your MP might help.

As for you son and the rest of your family, disabled people are entitled to benefits- perhaps if you all visited your local council welfare rights officer, they could find out if you could receive more help.

Please do start your own thread and everyone will be mor3e than happy to try to help your individual problems.

[Bazooka Boo]

mcd2703... The DWP act with near impunity, and you will bang your head against a brick wall constantly until you let them know you have some knowledge of the laws surrounding "debt". I had a 7 month fight with the DWP when they accused me of not telling them I was in receipt of a private pension when I claimed Incapacity benefits. They claimed they had overpaid me by a mere 250 quid. I dipsuted this and they still insisted that I would need to pay it back. It got to the stage that the clown who was in charge of the "Debt management centre" at Bradford kept sending me letters stating I would need to pay it back and that they would start to take it from my entitlement every week. Not once did he ever acknowledge any of my requests for information, until I sent them a letter stating that as the Debt owed was in dispute they were committing an offence by continuing with debt recovery. This in turn led to another person to look at the evidence again and actually get the initial claim form I had sent which clearly stated that I was waiting to hear about a private pension, and therefore they should not have proceeded with the claim until this information had been sent. So there inept staff and the clown who had been threatening me with legal action sent me a letter to state that they would not be recovering the money from now on. If you know you are in the right and it is there mess up then fight it all of the way, but you may need to get some proper legal asdvice