revised wording for overpayment letters?

A colleague of mine has just told me about what may be an new form of words on overpayment letters. It appears that the o/p concerned may not be recoverable under Social Security law but the letter doesn’t actualy say so, it just says that ;

“We are writing to you because after they died we paid £978.21 too much Retirement Pension; Contributory for the period 24/01/2011 to 27/03/2011 into their bank,building society or Post Office Card Account.

We hope you will appreciate that when public funds are incorrectly paid we are obliged to ask for them to be refunded.

Incorrect payments can be made after a persons death for a number of reasons, and we fully accept that such payments may not have been made as a result of anyones fault”

It just goes on to say how to pay it back and does not mention appeal rights so we conclude that the Pension Service do may not actually have any legal powers to compel the claimant to give it back.

I feel that this letter verges on being misleading and I wonder if anyone else has seen this type of letter or has any views or experiences.

Thanks jan, I have now read through s71 (4) but I am not sure it makes much difference in this case, the PS were told about the husband passing away on at least three separate occaisions and continued to pay regardless. My own feeling is that they are aware of this and don’t have the legal right to have the money back, hence the letter. I do however take the point about different letters that might be used at such sensitive times and my colleague is already liaising with the client to ring the PS and ask whether they feel the o/p is legally recoverable or not. If they say they have the right to recover then i think we will probably end up with the usual appeal!

I’ve always taken those letters to be akin to the recovery under common law stuff (ie- resulted from official error but we want it back anyway) and have responded on that basis. Of the ones I have encountered that’s been the end of it.

Pete:  I had personal experience of precisely the same type of letters - 3 of them (one each for SRP; AA; PC) following the death of my mother.  I got motivated.  I telephoned the number given and gave just enough rope etc…  I got a patently bland, but utterly misleading response, that all overpayments are recoverable when a clmt dies.  I then expressly asked 2 questions:

1)  what was the legislation giving authority that “all” overpayments were recoverable in such circs; and
2)  what was the legal basis on which recovery was being sought from me personally (the letter was addressed to me with no indication that the o/p was in respect of someone else).

Despite my asking FOUR times, the DWP’s automoton could not / would not provide the legislative basis for asking ME for recovery.  She then muttered something along the lines of “I suppose we’ll have to write it off then…”.  I then expressly asked if the o/p would be written off and the answer was in the unequivocal affirmative.  Needless to say, I made full contemporaneous notes of the call, including the name of the officer plus the date and time of call.  I have heard nothing since - 3 years +.

Nearly forgot; my request to speak to a supervisor / manager was flatly refused.