"We are reviewing your benefit claim" letter

[DanWS]

Hello there,

 

I currently claim Universal Credit (JSA).

 

Yesterday I received a letter from the Fraud and Error Service, Customer Compliance dept of the DWP.

 

 

The title of the letter is

"We are reviewng your benefit claim"

and the subtitle is

"Come to your meeting to keep us up to date".

 

 

It then tells me that they've

"arranged a time to meet you to talk about any changes which could affect your benefits."

 

 

It asks me to bring some proof of ID and bank statements etc.

The meeting is at my local JCP.

 

after receiving this letter I went through my recent bank statements from the past few months and it seems I received my Universal Credit payment twice in the month of November.

 

 

what happened is I usually receive my payment on the 25th of every month,

but in November I hadn't been paid by this date.

 

 

I called up the DWP but the system was down for the whole day of the 25th.

In the end someone called me back on the 26th and issued me my payment over the phone instead.

So that was that.

 

However, now after looking through my statement,

I've realised that I received another identical payment the very next day (27th) I had no idea about.

 

 

As soon as I saw this error yesterday,

I contacted the DWP again and explained this to them.

 

 

They told me that the payment might/probably will need paying back even though it's an error on their part,

which is fine by me, but the operator I spoke to wasn't sure and told me that someone might be in touch about it.

 

But now I'm obviously thinking this might be the reason for the letter.

 

 

Does anyone have any advice on the best way to handle this? Thanks!

Edited February 19, 2016 by DanWS

[dx100uk]

be truthful.....

 

 

dx

[DanWS]

Okay so I knew of the the double payment since before I received this letter (i'm sorry, fear of being judged), but wanted to hold out to see if they'd ask for it to be repaid. Is it likely that the meeting will be about this, and is it likely that it will have to be paid back? The figure is just over £300. The operator from the DWP I spoke to says it could possible for it to be paid back in instalments but again he wasn't sure. Thanks.

[reallymadwoman]

Just my opinion but I would have a hard time believing that someone on benefits wouldn't notice an extra payment of £300. I'm fairly sure you will end up having to repay it, though instalments, deducted from ongoing benefit payments, are possible.

 

The best option might be to prempt any discussion as to whether or not you noticed the payment by immediately offering to pay it back at whatever amount you can reasonably afford.