Hi me and my partner have a bit of a problem and not sure what to do I'll go into a bit of the back story so bare with me.

I stopped working in November 2015 due to issues with my right hand and was diagnosed with Parkinson's March 2016, I put a claim in for PIP May 2016... Meanwhile my partner was the sole earner from November 2015 and we were getting WTC to top up her wages.

My partner went of sick from work with depression the 4th July 2016 and started getting SSP 11th July 2016 we then made a claim for HB/CTB and still getting WTC, then I got my PIP claim (£55.10 Standard rate Daily care) in September backdated from May which in turn entitled my partner to Carers Allowance as she cares for me got that backdated to August.

Fast forward to the 22nd of January the last day of 28 wks of SSP ( Or so we thought) we cancelled the WTC from the 22nd due to the SSP ending… My partners employer supplied a SSP1 stating the date 22nd and we started an Income Support claim 23rd January we were started on a rate of around £30 a week the calculation included the SSP, she then supplied a letter off her employer stating that the last payment of SSP she received is her last and no more SSP is due, the IS was then backdated from the 28th January recalculated without the SSP on so that added an extra £88.45 a week on top of the £30ish a week we were already receiving.

Here comes the issue we checked the bank and my partner has had a token payment from work of around £35 which were guessing is SSP (not got her wage slip yet) but upon checking her old wage slip with the 1st SSP payment on it seems instead of my partner getting 4 weeks SSP they gave her a days holiday (she never requested it) then the rest SSP which could be the result in the £35 payment a days SSP... The head office deal with payments (which is based in Birmingham) so I am guessing why her employer has gotten confused on the SSP end date.

What do we do? As informing IS about the days SSP payment will cause an overpayment of around £350 to my reckoning and it will need recalculating once again with the small SSP payment then once again once her next pay date is due which we'd like to avoid due to fact it took awhile to get the correct IS issued to us had to chase up for letters, keep ringing up,jobcentre visits etc...

Could we ask her employer to take back the £35 odd payment by maybes giving the holiday back they gave her/or something on them lines which would be the easiest option and not have to inform IS?

Quite a mess up by her employer.

Thanks Trev.

Anyone got any advice?

Hello Trevstan.

Weekends tend to be quieter here, hopefully people will be along later.

HB

Hi my partner has a welfare meeting about her sickness tomorrow any advice prior to that?

Can't leave it much longer than Friday I guess.

Trev

Hello again.

I've moved you to the employment forum as part of your query is about SSP. Hopefully people will see your thread this evening and advise you.

HB

Hmm, AFAIK, the payment of SSP by her employer, the one which you think will cause an overpayment of £350, will do no such thing.

It is an oversight by a third party which couldn't have been foreseen so can't be punished or sanctioned, and most certainly NOT to the tune of £350!

It takes a while for the social security net to bed in, and there will be over, AND, underpayments, but it will all sort itself out eventually, just be 100% sure YOU keep a full account of EVERYTHING.

Whatever they send you or you send them, keep copies, if you send them letters, then ALWAYS obtain ''proof of posting'' which is free from the PO counter, even if they send you return envelopes.

So should we just hold on the tiny SSP payment and wait for Income Support to contact us?

And they will deduct/ask for any overpayment caused by the small SSP somewhere in the future?

Trev

IMO yes, they'll either contact you or they won't.

If they do then it's an honest oversight, and you can show that, you weren't to know.

Thanks

Thanks

Trev just ensure you keep copies of everything, the SSP payment and the IS payment.

I doubt you have anything much to worry about...