Decisions on overpayment recovery

Dear All

I have been looking through the DWP BORG etc but cannot seem to find anything, maybe as there isn’t, that confirms if there is an order in which benefits should be considering when making recovery.

By this I mean cl has an overpayment of UC, is part of a MAC and she also claims CA and the husband his State Pension - the overpayment of UC is being recovered from the CA and not the ongoing UC - with UC there are maximum rates of recovery/% etc but not with CA

I appreciate we can ask debt management to reduce the rate but is there anything that says if get overpaid UC then recovery is from UC or can they just go for any that is claimed (within appendix 1 of this link)

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/benefit-overpayment-recovery-staff-guide/benefit-overpayment-recovery-guide

Thanks in advance.

Paras 5.25 and 5.26 of that guidance should apply?

JonUCN

Many thanks for this, missed that - also in this case the 2nd part of 5.25 seems to explain why as the UC is minimal when the CA and State Pension are taken off.

Thanks again.

It seems a bit odd to me that this hierarchy of debt collection is not enshrined in law somewhere. If the department decides to depart from this guidance then potentially someone in receipt of a contributory benefit topped up with income-related is put in a worse position than someone getting purely income-related assistance. But if there’s any protection beyond the guidance, I’ve not seen it.