× Search rightsnet
Search options

Where

Benefit

Jurisdiction

Jurisdiction

From

to

Forum Home  →  Discussion  →  Covid-19 issues  →  Thread

UC Postal address?

roecab
forum member

Welfare benefits supervisor - Roehampton CAB

Send message

Total Posts: 465

Joined: 17 June 2010

Dear All,

We have a client who was in receipt of UC, reached Pension Age and so claimed PC - UC then came back, as overpaid, and cl wants to submit a request to waive the overpayment.

However, as she no longer claims UC she has no journal to make a note etc

Does anyone know of a postal address that can be used or any other way around this?

Many thanks.

VRW
forum member

Livin Housing

Send message

Total Posts: 61

Joined: 25 November 2019

daft question how was she told she had been overpaid by UC? was this on the journal prior to it stopping?

roecab
forum member

Welfare benefits supervisor - Roehampton CAB

Send message

Total Posts: 465

Joined: 17 June 2010

It was when they ended the claim, she was wrongly advised to claim UC, and oddly they paid her for several months - she did nothing at the time, but now with us for advice on a HB issue.

As such the write off will be on the basis that they advised her to claim UC, she did, they then said several months later, you are not entitled and have been overpaid, and that she needed to claim HB, which she did. She applied for HB to be backdated, but it has not covered the whole period and so this means there is a period when if repays the overpayment, she would have a period not covered by either UC or HB

Paul_Treloar_AgeUK
forum member

Information and advice resources - Age UK

Send message

Total Posts: 3196

Joined: 7 January 2016

That’s a good question and I’d also be interested to know how long the overlap was?

Remember this Work and Pensions Secretary announces new run-on of universal credit in assessment period that claimants reach state pension age

If the overlap of UC and PC was more than for that AIP, then your client might have problems due to the fact that all UC overpayments are technically recoverable, even where there are demonstrable circumstances of poor administration from DWP.

roecab
forum member

Welfare benefits supervisor - Roehampton CAB

Send message

Total Posts: 465

Joined: 17 June 2010

This is the case note -

“having a large UC overpayment (about £4,200) as she was told to apply for UC when her husband went onto his state pension in Nov 2019 and this continued to be paid until Sept 2020, despite her becoming pension age and getting her SRP in Jan 2020.

The overpayment only became apparent in Aug 2020 and the client applied for HB straightaway but just been told she can only have it backdated 3 months. This means she will still have a substantial UC overpayment to repay with only 3 months backpay of HB as a credit against it.

The UC overpayment is being deducted at the rate of £50pm and she is ok about that level of repayment but, of course, would like to know if there is anything that can be done to get the HB backdated further.”

Paul_Treloar_AgeUK
forum member

Information and advice resources - Age UK

Send message

Total Posts: 3196

Joined: 7 January 2016

This is absurd. You’‘re saying the local authority told her to claim UC when her husband reached SPA rather than allowing her to claim HB? And then she reached SPA and got her State Pension but didn’t tell DWP?

On the former, I think you’d need to contemplate whether a complaint and request for compensation might be appropriate, whether that’s a goer or not I have no idea.

On the latter, I can’t see there’s much she can do really. Suppose you could ask them to exercise discretion to not recover an amount equivalent to the HB that should have been paid.

How have we ended up in such a complete mess? We’d seen a few similar cases last year but they seemed to have died down recently. Sadly, clearly not entirely.

roecab
forum member

Welfare benefits supervisor - Roehampton CAB

Send message

Total Posts: 465

Joined: 17 June 2010

Paul,

Exactly, not only was the UC claim allowed to run, when no entitlement, as both pension age, they then lose benefit and have a debt

But, back to the point, how do we get to UC without a journal? Don’t want to send a letter/complaint etc into a balck hole

Tempted to send the client to the MP as well, as that might at least get us an ‘in’?

Cheers

VRW
forum member

Livin Housing

Send message

Total Posts: 61

Joined: 25 November 2019

again daft question/maybe just a written thinking out loud response

how did she access her journal? i would assume that the overpayment came in the form of an attached letter to her journal - if she accessed this from her smart phone she may have a copy in her phone downloads - if it is a computer it could have been saved in a recent docs

worth checking to see if there is an address on that letter to send the info too??

i would defo send it to the MP

Elliot Kent
forum member

Shelter

Send message

Total Posts: 3117

Joined: 14 July 2014

roecab
forum member

Welfare benefits supervisor - Roehampton CAB

Send message

Total Posts: 465

Joined: 17 June 2010

That’s ace, thanks Elliott.