benefit overpayment to mentally ill sister

[LThomas72]

I wonder if anyone can advise me on this matter? My sister suffers from bi-polar disorder, having been officially diagnosed at the start of the year after a long history of severe depression. She is currently in receipt of DLA and as far as I know, aside from Housing Benefit, this is her only income. Since our mother died in March she has become severely agoraphobic and hardly ever leaves her flat or opens the curtains. A few weeks ago she was persuaded to move in with our father, and so I have been collecting her mail and passing it on to her.

 

This week when I went to pick up her mail after a 2 week absence, it included 8 separate giros, totaling over £3k, for the same 2 week period. As far as I can tell this was a genuine clerical/official error by the DWP, as she has not made any changes in her claim or informed them of changed circumstances. She is convinced that the payments represent a backdated amount that she is entitled to, but there is no accompanying letter to say as much, only the bog standard 'here's your money' letter they always sent fortnightly with 1 giro.

 

Of course this error has been seen by her as providence and something she should be able to take advantage of, a theory fuelled by all the articles you can find online about the DWP being unable to take people to court for overpayment if it's due to a official error. I told her they will dock her benefit for the next 2 years when they realise the mistake, but she doesn't seem to understand that this will have long terms effects. It's money sent by the Gods as far as she's concerned.

 

So my question is this. If I were to inform DWP of this, would she immediately be in hot water or would the fact that she is mentally ill be mitigation of some kind? And is she right, is overpayment by a technical error something that can't be reclaimed through the courts?

[honeybee13]

Hello and welcome to CAG.

 

I hope the guys with the right knowledge will be along soon with advice for you. Your other option could be the local CAB who should be used to benefit matters and overpayments and will be able to speak to you face to face.

 

My best, HB

[johnvernon74]

Each giro will state on it what period it represents. There should be a letter in with it saying what its for. Its unlikely to be duplicate payments unless its a clerical claim. My understanding is that payments would be checked before sent. Why can't she phone and find out what its for. If it is wrong and she spends the money then the DWP have the right (in law) to claim this money back.

[antone]

Are these payments definitely for DLA? Is it possible she could have claimed ESA as well?

[LThomas72]

As far as I know she only gets DLA, which amounts to about £80 per week (does that sound right?) as well as her rent paid in full by HB. The cheques were all for the same period - 2 weeks prior to the 6th August - but ranged in amount from £165 to £445. She won't call the DWP herself to find out if it's correct, as I think she suspects it is a mistake and of course she wants to keep the money. The problem is that she owes a lot of money to various people and sees this as a fantastic way to clear all her debt in one go.

 

Most of the cheques (6 of them) are for roughly £440. Does that amount ring any bells with anyne? Could it be for some benefit she could be entitled to? It still doesn't explain why they're all for the same period of course!