PIP lump sum and UC overpayment recovery

Hello,

I have a Client with a UC overpayment of ca. £3k. She has just been told her PIP appeal was successful and she will be awarded a 5 figure lump sum in backdated payments. She is worried that DWP will use this sum to offset her UC overpayment. As far as I have been able to ascertain, this is a possibility as CPAG states: “Overpayments can also be recovered from arrears of benefit you are owed, except arrears of a benefit that has been suspended”. I couldn’t find anything to say that PIP payments are excluded from this - does anyone have experience of this situation or know of any additional information I may have missed?

Hello
Yes I had similar circs. Client was owed £5,400 in PIP backpay following a tribunal and the post-hearing award letter from PIP only awarded £3,700 in arrears and advised her to contact Debt Management regarding any further arrears.

We contacted Debt Management on the main number who confirmed £1700 was sent to service debts (TC OP x 4, 2 x SF loans, 1 x UC OP, total debts around £4,300) and asked for some of the money being sent to service debt recovery to be paid to client instead. Client asked to be paid £1,000 of the £1,700 for herself as she needed to replace carpets etc.. I sort of got the impression that she might have been able to ask for most if not all of the backpay to go to her, but the operator did advise that it needed to be approved - which it was.
Your case may differ where the backpay owed to the client is higher…