phantom payments

I’m hoping that this is a one off but I thought that I should raise it just in case.

Client was made redundant in August 2018, the firm went bust so his redundancy was paid by the receivers but this was paid in full by the end of August 2018.

He got another job right away but due to a change of circumstances had to stop after only a week. He wasn’t able to get another job and lived on the redundancy pay until he ran out of money and had to claim UC. The first month’s payments were correct but the second month’s showed a considerable income from ‘an employer’ within the assessment period and a consequent reduction in UC payable. His UC account does not say who this ‘employer ‘is.

The cl is completely baffled as to who this ‘employer’ might be, he is clear that he has never received any payments of the sum in question either in or out of the relevant assessment period and can back that up with bank statements.

He took the bank statements to the Work Coach before Christmas 2018 and asked for the decision to be looked at again but nothing seems to have happened ( we have of course sent a formal MR Request in today).

The only thing that I can think of is that the receivers used the RTi system to notify an income but did it more than three months after the payment was actually made but this doesn’t really add up either as the amounts don’t tally

Any ideas welcome

CPAG is talking to DWP about their approach to disputed RTI - more detail in this thread: https://www.rightsnet.org.uk/forums/viewthread/13916/