Written by John Kruse, one of the leading experts on Bailiff Law, this consumer friendly guide is essential reading for anyone who comes into contact with a bailiff.
The book is easy to understand and clearly explains the rights
a bailiff has, and also what they cannot do when collecting debts and repossessing goods etc.
Until October the CM was taken from my ex by the CSA using a Detachment of earnings order as he was an erratic payer. To make life easier for me on benefits it was paid direct to the DWP who paid me full entitlment to IS without deduction for the maintenance as they were recieving it direct.
I knew the rules were changing and it would be paid direct to me from October. Around Christmas I realisedI had not see the payment in my bank ad phoned the CSA. They had paid it into an old account I dont use so I had not noticed. I immediately filled in the form and sent it to the DWP saing I had received the money. I worked out how much I had been overpaid and set it aside ready to pay back.
When I still heard nothing I went into the DWP a month ago. They wanted me to phone Greenock on the freephones but I pointed out that I am deaf and cant use their phones so they gave me some info and asked me to go back the next day and make a statement. I did this and essentailly said the following:
I was now receiving the Maintenance and why I was late informing them
That I had kept aside the overpayment and would prefer to pay it back rather than have any deductions from my IS
the leaflets they gave me said I had been entitled to keep the first £10 per week of the maintenance without it affecting my IS but they had never given me this as they had kept all the maintenance
Could their underpayment of my maintenance be offset against the accidental overpayment since October.
By my estimate I owe them £480 but they owe me approx £2600
It is now 27 days since I made the statement and I have heard nothing but have received more IS still with the overpayment. I seem to remember that if you declare that you are being overpaid and they fail to act within a certain time then they cannot recover what they have overpaid after the dae you notified them.
My questions are:
Am I right about the timescales on overpayments?
How far back can I reclaim the £10 per week I should have been getting for the last 5 years.
I'm not sure I have got this right, just to clarify:
For the past 5 years you have not received the £10 per week of child support you should have been getting in addition to your Income Support?
If yes to the above, then yes you should be able to claim it back, however it may take a bit of time as they need to ensure that they were actually receiving Child Support payments for the duration of that period. If they have not received child maintenence payments for any week in that period, they will not owe you anything for the weeks that nothing was received. Payments can not be received sometimes if there is a DEO in place and for example the non resident parent changes workplaces, as the CSA would need to track him down again, do another assessment based on new employment and add arrears to the assessment. This happened to me with CSA - they did not look for him again, it took me to phone them to ask why payments had ceased before they realised he'd done a bunk from his job. However, for the weeks that child support has been received, you would be entitled to £10 for every week it has been received as far back as the error as it is their error. I'm not entirely sure though whether this should be raised with CSA or with the Income Support Section.
As regards the overpayment, there is no time limit when a claimant is aware that they are being overpaid, especially when they have signed a statement to that effect. They can write off an overpayment if the overpayment was due to official error and there is no way that the customer could have been aware that they had been overpaid. However, even this has recently come under threat after a recent test case in the High Court:BBC NEWS | UK | Benefit errors 'can be recouped'
In addition, as you are aware you have been and are being overpaid, then there is some responsibility on you as the claimant to ensure that any monies you are aware you are not entitled to are returned. If you fail to return the monies, they can simply deduct it from your benefit payments. If you stop receving benefits, they will initially send the case to the debt management Centre who will liase with you. They can then take you to court if you refuse to pay.
I know it's probably not what you wanted to hear, and I hate having to break unwanted news to people but at least you will know where you stand on it now.
I'm OK with paying back the overpayment and have set it aside ready. Always intended to pay it back, at least up until I informed them. I just thought I'd heard something about them having to act within reasonable time of my informing them but if thats not the case its not bad news.
Luckily the CSA have notified me how much they have paid the DWP each year and I kept the notifications so that will help. It was apparently the DWP's responsibility to give me the £10 with my IS payments but for some reason they never did this so it seems that they will have to repay it.
Absolutely, back when you would have claimed Income Support, they treated those claims as claims for child support unless the claimant could show good cause for not wishing to claim maintenance. If the payments have been received by the non resident parent, it is up to the DWP to pass this on to you, and if they haven't done so you have every right to ask for it, it's your entitlement.
income Support/Child Maintenance overpayment
and set it aside ready to pay back.
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