Income support appeal allowed

[Alice_D]

Hi All,

The DWP wrote me a letter in 2004 claiming i'd been overpayed over £2000 in Income Support payments back in 1998.

This was the first I knew about this and wrote to them to appeal.

I received another letter regarding Housing Benefit in 1998, it said I had been overpayed HB too. I appealed and was sent a date for an independant tribunal but was unwell on the day and asked for it to be adjourned but it went ahead and went against me.

The IS appeal in 2004 was ignored by DWP.

I received another letter in 2007 regarding the IS overpayment and appealed again as I had lost my job in 2007 and they were recovering money from my benefit. This appeal was refused for being out of time.

Then this year I appealed again and it was allowed, it went to an independant tribunal and I won. The judge decided there was no evidence to support an overpayment in 1998.

Since 2007 the DWP have already recovered over £1000 of the £2000 they originally claimed I owed.

 

I have 2 questions.

1. How long will it take for the DWP to refund the money they have taken?

 

2. As I have won the IS appeal, can the HB overpayment appeal decision now be overturned as they were for the same time period? For the last few months I have only been earning £400 per month and am housing benefit are only paying 50p per week towards my rent as they say the rest is being taken for the overpayment.

 

I am being taken to court by my landlord because I cannot afford to pay the full rent from my wage of £400 per month and am very worried.

 

one more question,

Can any further action be taken against the DWP regarding them persuing me for all these years with absolutely no evidence and ignoring my previous appeal in 2004?

[leemack]

Hi Alice, you need to write to the local authority explaining that you have won the income support appeal, providing a copy of the tribunal decision, and ask them to revise their overpayment decision, and refund all recovered amounts. Normally this is enough. Do you have a current appeal regarding the hb/ctb op?

 

You should be repaid the recovered income support, but to be honest this may take some nudging. Any action after an appeal can take 6-8 weeks anyway. But just be sure, you might want to send the office dealing with the appeal a copy of the tribunal decision, with a letter requesting repayment.

 

You could also put in a complaint to the DWP regarding your treatment, but I doubt that it would acheive much - particularly if you only chased up the appeal after recovery commenced.