14 year old DWP Social Fund Loan

[The GodMother]

Also if u are disputing a lot of this money ask for evidence of this and evidence to prove it was not paid back.

 

I have found when i do that hey tend to back down and stop asking for or even taking the money outta the benefits as they cant prove it.

 

Also i notice u are saying they have said the money was comming of ur partners benefits at a set amount each week. Are they expecting him to pay this or u?

[seadragon]

Yeah, sorry I should clarify - this is all my partners 'debt' from when he was with his ex-wife 14 years ago. It has nothing directly to do with me except that they wanted to know my income too when they asked for repayments. I'm guessing they can't touch any benefts I might claim, it'd have to be his if he claimed anything.

 

It just seems crazy to me that they're trying to claim that over 18 loans none of them were repaid at all I don't see how that could even happen and it certainly didn't!

 

I think I'm going to ignore it for now and wait to see if anything else turns up and dispute that when and if it does

[The GodMother]

Not exactly.

 

yes they can touch ur benefits BUT they will ask u to sign a form giving them permission to take out of ur benefit the amount YOU say they can take and how often.

 

So they are saying that he owes £700.00+ then if u claim for him in the future and he gets letters he can just write and say i am joint claimant with seadragon she claims all the money for us.

 

They then send a letter to u asking if u will voluntary agree to pay money back towards this debt and if so can u please sign the enclosed letter stating how much and how often.

 

I know this as i did have benefit and due to there error which they admitted they overpaid me, they did not bother to read my forms so for 6 months was paying me as a couple instead of a single person, They only started to chase the money in sept 2005 and i advise that i was joint claimant on a claim they said they would senc forms

 

I made them via my partner a offer of 50p PER MONTH for a over £500 debt they accepted the offer as i was told they had no choice due to not being able to take money from me and they have had the maximum of £35 out of us.

 

Then if it seems crazy to u then i would write to them asking to see proof of EVERY debt and PROOF of benefits and proof of benefit deductions.

[seadragon]

Just got home to find 18 letters from DWP on the doormat!! One for each individual loan they claim was never paid back (ie every loan ever taken out), this time from Debt Management Manchester (Off Benefit), demanding payment immediately.

 

This was after a phone call yesterday asking why we had not responded to the last letter that I posted above, to which my partner replied only that we would not deal with them by phone.

 

Doesn't seem like this is going to go away So what now? Send the statute barred letter to this contact centre too? Include a copy of the response from the job centre above which seems to acknowledge that they can't take legal action? Argue again that these loans were repaid in full 14 years ago??

 

Any suggestions?

[cerberusalert]

Send the statute barred letter to this contact centre too? Include a copy of the response from the job centre above which seems to acknowledge that they can't take legal action?

Yes

Argue again that these loans were repaid in full 14 years ago??

Yes but do that through the DWP.

[The GodMother]

Sent a letter re all 18 saying u want proof of debt. U want proof of payment tat was allegedly paid and proof they had not p aid the money back.

 

then say if they have not responded within 14 days u will consider the matter closed.

[seadragon]

Just when I thought this was dead and buried it's come up again

 

In August last year we started getting the usual 'pay up or else' letters again and when we replied to tell them where to stick their requests they claimed they had no received the letter.

 

We then sent another copy of it to them in early Sept, telling them where they could shove their requests, this time by recorded delivery. Again no response...until xmas eve when we got a response from the same useless woman who wrote the gobblegook letter posted earlier saying she was sorry for the delay in responding but that she would write again when she had looked into it. Then today we got another letter from her simply saying that after investigating she can tell us 'it's still a recoverable debt, blah, blah, blah' and that she was passing it back to the Debt Centre who would be in touch again. because their records 'contain enough information for them to pursue it.' What's even funnier is that she said 'we have security measures and systems in place to ensure all payments received are accounted for'. Obviously, such great systems that allow 14 years to pass without you chasing the supposed debt.

 

I know they probably can't take legal action, but I'm so sick of this now...is there anything we can do to stop this once and for all?

[cerberusalert]

I know they probably can't take legal action,

There's no probably about it, they definitely cannot take any legal action.

 

If and when the Debt Centre gets in touch refer them to their letter in post #22.

[The GodMother]

Ask them for proof of debt. Ask them for proof the debts were not paid back and ask them for a list of all the benefit payments and recovery payments from the time.

 

Tell them this is because you feel they are fraudlently asking for payment as you have checked records and all loans would have been paid back years ago.