dwp dept advice needed

[tomboy1]

i was taken to court & found gilty of benefit fraud i am now paying them back at £25 per month they keep writing to me every six months asking me to pay more i keep telling them i cant afford to pay anymore to them . And i adviced then by letter that they had reached an agreement of £25 per month now they are going back on there word and wanting more & more off me i am sick to the back teeth of them hounding me . I am now working and know i did wronge but i am trying my best to pay them . They have had a breakdown of my incoming & outgoings & agreed to the £25 per month . What i want to know is they keep saying in there letters that they can take civil action agaist me . Can the take civil action agaist me if i am paying them this £25 per month ? I have never missed a payment . any advice would be great as i;m going out of my mind with these people

[tomboy1]

Can no one offer any advice about the above please

[loopinlouie]

If the court made an oder of 25.00 then the only way they I would have thought could increase it would be to return to court and ask them to reconsider the ammount you have to pay, for instance change in circumstances, more comming in now working. Obvioulsy if your income and outgoings have not vastly increased they could only again be given what ordered by the court.

 

You could if being harassed by them approach the court and ask advice, checking they set the 25.00 and if so they could reassure you what the dwp powers are.

 

As to civil powers over my head, but I honestly thought they could only do one or the other.

 

Better caggers can add more or put me right if my post is a little out xx

 

Best wishes, honestly its only 16.15, if you can ring your court today before closes or tommorow morning with case number for peace of mind xxxx

[tomboy1]

it;s not the court that keep writing to me asking me to increase payment it;s the dwp dept department as i said above we reach an agrement with them now they keep wanting more

[tomboy1]

the dwp took me to court to deal with the criminal side of things that is done & dusted . what i want to know is while i;m paying them the agreed amount of £25 can they take cival action coss i wont increese the payments ?

[loopinlouie]

Was the twently five pounds part of repayment or a court fine for. If as I beleive it is a payment to both set by the court, it is the court you need to let know the dwp are still asking for more and threatening you with civil action. I realise its not the court persuing you but sometimes dcas wether dwp or not seem to think they can overide court descisions, naughty of them xx

[tomboy1]

the twently five pounds was not part of repayment or a court a fine . I got community sevice from the court that is the legal side of thing finished. as everyone is aware the dwp still want there money back i defrauded them out of. so before the court case was finished the dwp wrote to me wanting there money back so myself & the dwp agreed on a payment plan of £25 per month & that is what i have been paying them since last year but they keep writing to me wanting more per month & saying in there letters that they may take civil action agaist me . they have never took me to the civil court to recover this money . It has been an agreement between me & the dwp to pay them back in instalments as we all know they will continue to persue me for it . Now my only question is would the dwp be able to get a civil action agaist me whilst i;m paying them this £25 per month or would the civil courts not entertain them coss i;m paying them something at least ie the £25 per month ?

Edited August 10, 2010 by tomboy1

[honeybee13]

Tomboy, have you tried to speak to the DWP about this? I think you're saying it's the DWP chasing you and not a debt collection agency.

 

This may be a fairly specialist area, so hopefully our guru Erika will be along later after work.

 

HB

[tomboy1]

yes i have spoke to the dwp i have replied to there letters time & time again telling them i cant afford to pay them any more than £25 . but they still keep writing to me wanting more telling me they may take civil action in the civil courts . what i just want to know is while i;m paying them the £25 per month can they get a civil action agaist me or would the civil courts not entertain them coss i;m paying the somthing off this dept ? it is the dwp that is chasing me for the dept not a dept collection agency or the courts

Edited August 10, 2010 by tomboy1

[tomboy1]

yes i have spoke to the dwp i have replied to there letters time & time again telling them i cant afford to pay them any more than £25 . but they still keep writing to me wanting more telling me they may take civil action in the civil courts . what i just want to know is while i;m paying them the £25 per month can they get a civil action agaist me or would the civil courts not entertain them coss i;m paying the somthing off this dept ?

ps yes its the dwp that is persuing me not the courts or any dept agecies

[loopinlouie]

Ok, Definately one for erika xx

[antone]

As Honeybee said, Erika or one of the other debt collection experts would be best placed to answer this. My feeling is that if £25 is all you can afford, and you can demonstrate this with an income and expenditure schedule, a court would be fairly sympathetic to you if it came to the worst.

 

After all, you had an agreement with the DWP to voluntarily repay the money, and they accepted it at the time. Also, you say you haven't missed any payments, which will count in your favour as well.

 

I'm afraid that, although I did work for the DWP, debt management was not something I had much to do with.

[tomboy1]

thanks for the advice how can i get hold of Erika for more advice . i just want to know if the civil courts would not allow the dwp to take civil action agaist me as i;m paying them the amount we both agreed on ?

[honeybee13]

Hello again. Erika doesn't take PMs [Private Messages]. If you could just hold on until this evening, I'm pretty confident she will be along.

 

HB

[ErikaPNP]

Hi.

 

DWP can take civil action to enforce payment up until 6 years after the date that they made the decision on the overpayment.

 

However, in order for a court to order anything, the court would have to be satisfied that you could afford this. A court will only order that a person pay what they can afford, and DWP are well aware of that fact so if your completed I & E form clearly shows that what you are paying is all that you can afford, they are unlikely to raise civil action.

 

Although DWP can take civil action in a case like this, they do so very rarely; they usually do this to enforce payment when nothing is being paid, or if someone is making sporadic payments. Doesn't stop them making the threat though and I have seen this threat made even when court enforcement is not possible (for example, because the limitation period has elapsed).

 

They can continue to write to you periodically to ask payments be increased, and they are unlikely to stop doing this. As long as the amount of times they are writing is reasonable. For example, it would be unreasonable to write to you every week with this request as a person's income and expenditure is not likely to alter so much that it would enable an increase in the rate of payment, in the space of a week.

 

You can of course complain about the letters you are receiving if you feel they are too often and are causing you undue stress.

[tomboy1]

hi Erika i would like to thank you and all the others that replied to my problem the advice you gave me has made it more clear so that i wont let the dwp keep intimidating me many thanks again . ps i have been searching the net for the dwp;s dept departments guidlines & found them it make very interest reading .

[tomboy1]

Erika one more question they have now sent me a letter asking me to fill in there I & E form it says on the back of this form to fail to make a new offer may allow us to take legal action agaist you . I thought that this was a civil matter in the eyes of the law ? ps the front letter that came with it say civil action , I;m confused . Is it a civil matter or a legal matter? . i think i;m right in saying its a civil matter . I phoned them & told them that i had allready given them a I & E form completed by me . she just said are you telling me your income & outgoings are still the same i told her yes they have not changed in the last 6 months since they last requested an increase in payments she said thats fine no probelm we will leave it as it is . she did tell me they will right to me every 6 months . i did advice her & her department not to try & mislead me by telling me in there letters that this is a legal matter when in fact they know full well its not. she did not comment on that . i wonder why lol

Edited August 16, 2010 by tomboy1

[ErikaPNP]

'Civil' is a legal term. There are two types of law; civil law and criminal law.

 

The prosecution of fraudulent claims fall within the jurasdiction of criminal law. When you were prosecuted and plead guilty, this was a criminal matter.

 

The recovery of overpayments fall within civil law, it's a civil matter. If they were going to raise an action against you, they would raise what is known as "civil proceedings" - this is legal action and would be dealt with in a court, but a civil court, not a criminal one.

[Helen2264]

Erika one more question they have now sent me a letter asking me to fill in there I & E form it says on the back of this form to fail to make a new offer may allow us to take legal action agaist you . I thought that this was a civil matter in the eyes of the law ? ps the front letter that came with it say civil action , I;m confused . Is it a civil matter or a legal matter? . i think i;m right in saying its a civil matter . I phoned them & told them that i had allready given them a I & E form completed by me . she just said are you telling me your income & outgoings are still the same i told her yes they have not changed in the last 6 months since they last requested an increase in payments she said thats fine no probelm we will leave it as it is . she did tell me they will right to me every 6 months . i did advice her & her department not to try & mislead me by telling me in there letters that this is a legal matter when in fact they know full well its not. she did not comment on that . i wonder why lol

 

I've dealt with many similar situations if you have sent the DWP an Income and Expenditure and they have agreed with you the amount of £25.00 then that's all you can afford to pay they cannot ask you to pay for more money it seems to me they are bullying you perhaps you will seek advice there are the Ombudsman give them a try see if they can help you.

 

[tomboy1]

thanks for your advice i found this on the net very interesting how they are adviced to use bullying tacticks to get the max out of people who are not on benefit anymore they wont bully me as i just contact my mp . I am well aware that i did wrong & i have paid the price but i wont be bullied by them they seam to think there a law in themselfs . thanks again to everyone for all your advice

 

 

http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/document/hc0809/hc02/0294/0294.pdf

[Helen2264]

thanks for your advice i found this on the net very interesting how they are adviced to use bullying tacticks to get the max out of people who are not on benefit anymore they wont bully me as i just contact my mp . I am well aware that i did wrong & i have paid the price but i wont be bullied by them they seam to think there a law in themselfs . thanks again to everyone for all your advice

 

 

http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/document/hc0809/hc02/0294/0294.pdf

 

That's the way to go do not let them bully you by law you only pay what you can afford.

[tomboy1]

they wont lol well ahead of them they keep it up with me i get right on to my mp & make him do something

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