I have a client who has been asked to repay a BL of £500 from 2006, which she says she never requested or received. I've asked the DWP for a copy of the signed receipt, and they say "DWP is not obliged to provide customer with a copy of the original loan acceptance form, in accordance with Departmental guidelines, as the evidence and details of the loan are held on the SF computer system.........".

I've looked in the SF guide, but can't find anything about when a customer disputes having received a BL.

Can anyone help?

Thanks
Chris.

I'm not a debt adviser but I have two ideas.

1) data protection subject access request for the computer records;
2) let them go to court - they'll have to prove the debt. If they're recovering from benefits and can't prove the debt, I'm not sure where to go - I suppose it would be a complaint to the ombudsman if necessary (having exhausted the internal procedures, etc).


It seems quite strange they're not prepared to prove the debt, when I've dealt with such cases the loan acceptance form has usually appeared quite rapidly! along with screen prints showing the relevant claim and decision dates, amounts, etc.

The creditor must ‘prove’ the debt. In other words a person cannot just come along and say you owe me £500, he must provide some evidence to substantiate that allegation.

For a start there should be a record to show that your client was on IS/JSA/PC at the time of the decision. There should also be a copy of the BL claim form, a record of the decision, a record of the issue of payment, her signature on a receipt (as you say), or something else.

If they were to sue for debt in the county court the court would demand some tangible proof.

In CIS/3486/2007 (distinguished) the commissioner found that where there was lack of evidence that a particular office was in a chaotic state or that the computer records were unreliable then computer printouts of a record showing specific documents sent to a claimant could be sufficient evidence that they were in fact sent.

However, even though the burden of proof is the same, a civil court might demand something a little more rigorous.

If they are intending to recover from ongoing benefit then she would have to take legal action against them.

We had a similar case. We used SS Administration Act 1992 Reg.78(3)(a), which allows recovery of a SF payment "from the person to or for the benefit of whom it was made".
If your client never applied for or received the loan, then the deduction is unlawful. Threaten Judicial Review to the DWP solicitors - we tried to resolve it with the SF office but got nowhere.

Thank you to all who responded.

I'll dig my heels in and demand proof of the debt, and take it from there.

Chris.