STATE RETIREMENT PENSION OVERPAYMENT.

My client claimed his SRP in 2005 and at the time his wife did not work , she is 12 years younger , so he was given the dependants allowance with his pension. Over the years his wife has had various part time jobs all under the PAYE scheme , so he claims the DWP should have known she was working as she was paying NI conts.
Just recently the DWP have cottoned on to the fact that she did receive ESA and had these part time jobs over the last 8 years and have now removed the dependants allowance from client’s SRP. They are asking her to provide them with details of her 3 occupational pensions and when she first received them , which she can and will do. I’m not even sure if this request about her Occ Pens is to do with the overpayment of the dependants allowance ,as she was only eligible to claim SRP herself in March this year and it could be they are calculating the correct amount of pension for her as the letters she received about this issue began in March.
They are worried that they will be asked to repay the dependants allowance once this has all been sorted out and are asking where they stand on being required to repay. Can the Dept insist legally that they repay? I personally don’t think we have a case that the DWP should have known she was working due to the NI conts being paid. That is their only defence should they be asked to repay.
Any advice gratefully received.Thanks

NI is paid to HMRC not DWP anyway.

It is unlikely that the DWP will need proof of this person’s occupational pensions in order to process her claim for State Pension as all the information they need is readily available to them.  It may be that they are considering a potential overpayment of Employment and Support Allowance.  If the occupational pensions exceeded £85.00 per week there is a possibility that ESA may have been overpaid.

The client’s wife now receives SRP in her own right since March 2013 , so the Adult Dependency Increase would have been removed from Client’s SRP anyway regardless of any overpayment. It is the Pensions Service who are asking for details of the Occ Pens so it is a good point to say that they would have details of these anyway.  I can’t see that the Pensions Service would deal with an potential overpayment of ESA , but I could be wrong. I did say that NI conts went to HMRC and not the DWP.
So back to the question in hand , where would they stand with a request to pay the money back , are the DWP able to enforce it?

If you can get your hands on the entitlement notice for the SRP and ADI award from 2005, have a look and see if it clearly and unambiguously instructs your client to report changes of circumstances which may have affected his award of the ADI.  If it does not, you may have something to run with.  It certainly will not mention ESA which only came into being in 2008.  Subsequent uprating notices may have stated the requirement to report ESA as a relevant change of circumstances regarding ADI.

You may wish to look at CPAG page 785/6 or for a more simple explanation you could try Age UK Factsheet 19 page 11