Overpayment on Jobseekers ... citizens advice any good?

[sotty13]

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Edited July 13, 2010 by sotty13

[bigsteve0000]

CAB are their to help and are usually on the ball with this sort of thing. will know all the rules and regs that apply and will tell you best course of action. dont sign anything from DWP untill youve read it and checked it with CAB, DWP will try and get you to sign statement admiting you know you did wrong and then chase you for cost, interest and recovery of £4000. they may also try for a fraud charge so stick to it been an honest mistake and point out that they should have made this clear to you from outset.

[sotty13]

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Edited July 13, 2010 by sotty13

[privatehudson]

they may also try for a fraud charge so stick to it been an honest mistake and point out that they should have made this clear to you from outset.

 

It is made clear at the phone call stage that an income based claim does need to know about savings.

 

There's an entire section of the phone call that asks in turn if the customer has a current bank account, savings account, ISA, money saved for something, money from a redundancy payment and so on. If the answer to any of these is yes then it prompts the advisor to ask how much is in that type.

 

The entire section is prefaced by a long statement "we now need to know about Savings, this includes any money, savings, investments and property in the UK or abroad that belongs to you, and this is because the benefit you wish to claim may be affected by these".

[sotty13]

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Edited July 13, 2010 by sotty13

[privatehudson]

U seem ti know your stuff. You work for dwp ???

 

I do, I'm one of the people who takes the 45 minute call to make a new claim, so I must read out that sentence anywhere up to 15 times a day. I don't know what happened on your call but the list that follows is pretty extensive and includes the catch all category of "any other savings" so you should have had the opportunity to declare the £15,000 at that stage.

 

As I said I don't know how that part of your call went or whether you'll be prosecuted as I have no experience of that side of the benefits system. I just wanted to make it clear to anyone reading the thread that the opportunity to discuss precise amounts of savings does exist right from the start of the claim.

[honeybee13]

Privatehudson, is our OP entitled to a printout of the form and what was entered at the outset, or would they have it already?

 

HB

[sotty13]

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Edited July 13, 2010 by sotty13

[ErikaPNP]

Incapacity benefit is contributory based thus is not affected by capital, and tax credit aside from not being administered by DWP requires interest on capital in excess of £300 to be declared - different benefits have different conditions attached to them dependent on the law.

 

However, income based JSA and contributory based JSA also have differences, which brings me to some questions in light of what CAB have told you and in view of the fact that you were not getting HB or any other benefit except tax credit. You may not have been overpaid at all, or it may be that you have been overpaid but it may not be recoverable. This is what you need to establish - I can help you establish this with a few questions.

 

Which type of JSA were you receiving? Contributory based or income based? Did you declare your capital when asked about it?

 

Privatehudson, is our OP entitled to a printout of the form and what was entered at the outset, or would they have it already?

 

HB

 

It used to be the case that the information taken in a telephone claim was sent to the claimant to sign. In any case, he'd be entitled to a copy under section 7 of the data protection act, if he required a copy.

 

If there is an overpayment of £2000 or more caused by failure to disclose, the case will be referred to departmental solicitors for prosecution (even when the money is re-paid). The FIS can look at your bank records without your knowledge or consent.

[honeybee13]

Hello sotty13. I would help if I could, but at my vast age, I don't really understand text speak and don't get the drift of many of your messages.

 

My best, HB

[privatehudson]

Well I was going to reply but Erika once again has done it for me

 

In light of sotty's last reply though it really is essential to establish what the original claim was for and why they are now bringing up an overpayment.

[sotty13]

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Edited July 13, 2010 by sotty13

[privatehudson]

Hmm.

 

Unfortunately a lot of the advice I could give is in hindsight to be honest which is of limited value and may just add to your worries. Perhaps the CAB may be able to argue that you misunderstood the questions but that may rely on whether the advisor who took your claim over the phone asked them in full or not. Calls are recorded so the DWP would be able to check that if necessary for you.

 

Ultimately I don't really know much about the Fraud Investigation side of things so perhaps Erika can provide more advice on that.

 

if say i had no savings and had the flat when i 1st claimed ( i never ) its only an income surely if you make money on it???? what would you live on....?

When people own a property and are renting it out we take details of both incoming rent and the outgoings on the property. As it is considered capital we usually also take information about when it was bought, how much it is worth, how long the lease is for, how much the mortgage is and so on. I presume they use this information to calculate whether you have an income or not.

 

With regards to your last remark that is the government's point, if you can live off what you have they will expect you to do so. They'll still provide financial support for a limited period (usually 6 months) if you have paid into the system through Class 1 National Insurance Contributions and meet the other criteria such as actively seeking work. Even that can be blocked or reduced by some types of regular income such as a pension though.

 

The system is designed to check not just if you are eligible for benefit but also whether you need it. We can argue whether this is fair or not but those are the rules.