DWP and my compensation claim

[mitsy]

Hi i hope someone can help with this,

In Nov 2005 i had an accident at work which was there fault, this put me on statutory sick pay for 4 months i was also advised to make a claim which i did. the company made me redundant in dec 2006 then i went on job seekers allowance till dec 2007, I could no longer seek work due to a number of health problems so have been on incapacity bennefit since dec 2007.
Now my claim is coming to a close and they have offered me £2750 which i think is an insult, The medical expert who examined me said 4 months off work with 12 months to get back to normal.
The solicitors who are dealing with my case said £2750 is a good offer,
I was living on £90 a week for my family and had to buy food and pay full rent out of my wages so i had to borrow money from my family and friends till i got back to work.

I have claimed for £3800 in loss of earnings when i was off work which my solicitor now tells me the Department of Work and Pensions will want back,
so dont bother claiming them as DWP will claim them from my work.
It seems to me in the letter i have just received that they just want me to take the £2750 and forget about the rest,

The thing is there was a gap of a year since my accident and when i went on incapacity bennefit i also went back to work 4 months after my accident for 9 months before they finished me.

can the DWP take my loss of earning off me even though i went back to work and didnt claim incapacity till over a year later. My solicitor says because i have been on incapacity for a year they will want a years money out of my compensation.

[ErikaPNP]

I can't see why to be honest Incapacity benefit is a non-means tested benefit, it is payable based upon your circumstances, not income. The claim for Jobseekers may have been based upon income and money available to you at the time of the claim.

I don't claim benefit, but for the sake of argument, lets say I did. If I was to have a lottery win three years from now, would the government demand back any benefit money I would have (hypothetically speaking) claimed? No.

Unless your compensation was available to you during the period you claimed benefit, I cannot see why they would want to claim it back from you. As far as I am aware (I MAY be wrong) the DWP can only recoup money if:

1. You were found to be commiting benefit fraud
2. You had a repayable Social Fund loan
3. You are later discovered to have had available funds during the period of your claim for Income based benefits
4. You were awarded a Funeral Payment from the Social Fund and it was later discovered that there were or now are monies available from the deceased's estate to meet the full or part cost of the funeral.
5. You have arrears of child support to pay.

Were you claiming Contribution based jobseekers allowance or income based jobseekers allowance? With jobseekers, the sum you can claim can be affected if you have savings over £6000. If you have savings over £16000, you don't qualify at all. Neither of these sums are anywhere near what you say the compensation is. You do have to tell them about a change in circumstances but this is for the duration of the claim, not after.

Your best bet would be to ask them yourself, otherwise you could have that money sitting around doing nothing. I really don't think they can recoup it.

[gizmo111]

I would imagine they can relclaim any amounts that are paid to cover loss of earnings, as they were paying you means tested benefits for this period, but they can only claim back what they paid you, not the total amount you receive.

For example claim benefits 10 weeks @£100 = £1000
Loss of earnings payments for same 10 weeks = £1500
Due to DWP £1000. £500 for you. This puts you back in the position you would have been had you been working and not claiming.

[mitsy]

Originally Posted by ErikaPNP

I can't see why to be honest Incapacity benefit is a non-means tested benefit, it is payable based upon your circumstances, not income. The claim for Jobseekers may have been based upon income and money available to you at the time of the claim.

I don't claim benefit, but for the sake of argument, lets say I did. If I was to have a lottery win three years from now, would the government demand back any benefit money I would have (hypothetically speaking) claimed? No.

Unless your compensation was available to you during the period you claimed benefit, I cannot see why they would want to claim it back from you. As far as I am aware (I MAY be wrong) the DWP can only recoup money if:

1. You were found to be commiting benefit fraud
2. You had a repayable Social Fund loan
3. You are later discovered to have had available funds during the period of your claim for Income based benefits
4. You were awarded a Funeral Payment from the Social Fund and it was later discovered that there were or now are monies available from the deceased's estate to meet the full or part cost of the funeral.
5. You have arrears of child support to pay.

Were you claiming Contribution based jobseekers allowance or income based jobseekers allowance? With jobseekers, the sum you can claim can be affected if you have savings over £6000. If you have savings over £16000, you don't qualify at all. Neither of these sums are anywhere near what you say the compensation is. You do have to tell them about a change in circumstances but this is for the duration of the claim, not after.

Your best bet would be to ask them yourself, otherwise you could have that money sitting around doing nothing. I really don't think they can recoup it.

Thanks for the reply,

I gave the DWP a ring and they said they will not take any money out of my compensation, and they are sending a letter out to me to confirm this with my solicitor.
I told my solicitor about talking with the DWP and he was not impressed
i wonder if they were trying to have me over a barrel

[ErikaPNP]

No problem. Incapacity is not a means tested (income related) benefit, so I didn't think they could possibly ask for the money back.