Universal Credit Overpayment as a result of failing to provide Passport ID

Hi,

Just wondering f anyone has dealt with any similar cases.

My client was paid Universal Credit April 2020-Nov 2020.

She has now received a letter stating she was overpaid £5000 during this period.

The reasons: You have failed to provide evidence of identity. You should have provided this at the start. Documents not seen at the start of the claim. I have tried to do some research but cannot find much information.

Any help appreciated.

Thank you.

Oh wow, that is a very frustrating and seemingly erroneous decision notice.

If we go back to the beginning. What is an overpayment? It’s the product of a person’s actual entitlement being less than the benefit they have received - overwhelmingly because the decision on which their original entitlement was decided is later revised or superseded on the basis that the decision making is shown to be wrong for some reason.

There would be an overpayment if, for instance, it turned out that you had claimed benefit under a false and assumed identify. Or if you had claimed benefit when in fact your immigration status did not permit it. In each case the premise on which benefit was awarded is undermined and the decisions involved could be revised.

But I don’t see how there is an overpayment if you were (presumably) asked to provide ID documents at the start of the claim and then that requirement was apparently waived and benefit was awarded anyway. If the decision maker chose to award UC without those documents, that seems to amount to an acceptance that your client’s account of their identity was accurate on the basis of available evidence. I don’t see that it is open to them to go behind that now unless they are actually going to make a positive case that your client’s identity and/or their immigration status were not as they said they were.

I would say challenge it and also forward it to CPAG early warning system
https://cpag.org.uk/policy-campaigns/early-warning-system

Elliott this is a great help! Thank you so much for taking the time to reply! Holly

https://www.rightsnet.org.uk/forums/viewthread/17067/

I wonder if there any connections with the above?