Hello

I have been dealing with a range of cases where customers have been hit with an overpayment, as a result of fraud investigation. In all cases a subsequent fraud court case has been scheduled.

Every client in this situation has so far not appealed the overpayment within the 4 week time limit. The fraud court case rumbles on, they get legal representation and they concentrate on the legal case, not realising that they also need to challenge the overpayment separately from the fraud prosecution.

What are the chances of succeeding in a late appeal request for the actual overpayment?

Any tips or has anyone had any success in this area?

Put the question another way: how many contributors find difficulty in getting a late appeal admitted (at least by TS) when there are genuine complicating circumstances? I ask not knowing what the current trends are - it certainly seemed to be quite easy to get leave for a late appeal under the old rules.

Tue 26-Jan-10 03:31 PM by shawn

(Edited to shorten link)

I don't recall ever having a late appeal refused since the SSA1998 came into force.

However, there are two other options that might be worth a look also:

1) My favourite: find an official error (usually fairly easy for HB cases) and then seek a review of the superseeding decision which would then carry appeal rights. There is no time limit for a review on these grounds;

2) if beyond the absolute time limit, seek a statement of reasons for the superseded decision and then appeal within 14 days of the date the statement was issued. That counts as an 'in-time' appeal (see here: http://www.rightsnet.org.uk/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=7607).

There is a major problem with criminal law defence lawyers failing to even prompt defendants in such cases to appeal the benefit overpayment.

Hi everyone...we come across this too - all the time.

I have never yet been refused a late appeal in these circs and use the following grounds on the lateness angle (of course the issue of merit/prospects requires separate argument):-

I point out that the DWP letter on the overpayment/recovery decision (as distinct from the entitlement decision) says:-

“This does not affect any other action, including proceedings
in a criminal court, which may be taken in your case”

We contend that this wording is misleading to any member of the public in circumstances such as those faced by our client.

The fact that s/he had been notified of a loss of entitlement (which was appealed in time) with a subsequent decision letter stating that s/he would have to repay the monies (and also stating that such seeking of recovery will “not affect any other action”), led our client (quite reasonably in our view) to believe that her appeal of the first decision (entitlement) encompassed issues of the second (overpayment/recoverability) decision.

Clearly in law the decisions are discrete, however in practice they are obviously linked.

A criminal prosecution has also commenced in this case, which makes the question of both entitlement and recoverability of emphatic import to our client.

For these reasons we request that a late appeal of the decision seeking to recover the allegedly overpaid as made on ?/?/?/ is allowed in the interests of justice. We would also respectfully request that if such an appeal is allowed, that it be listed together with the entitlement appeal as referenced above.


.....seems to work....

Hello everyone, many thanks for responding, some brill advice and pointers, much appreciated.

Lee