DWP review of refusals to waive hardship payments - please share your experience

Under a new DWP scheme claimants can apply to the DWP to review a decision that they must repay a hardship payment. If successful, clients will be refunded hardship payment debt that has already been paid back.  The deadline to apply is *19 June 2023*.

Details of the scheme and the application form are here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/ask-dwp-to-review-a-previous-request-to-stop-waive-recoverable-hardship-payment-repayments-made-between-1-january-2014-and-11-january-2021

Clients may be able to claim a refund if:
1. At the time they were paying back the hardship payment, they asked the DWP to stop the repayments; and
2. DWP refused the request and continued to take the repayments; and
3. The client repaid the hardship payment.

Clients will need to explain in the form why DWP should have stopped the hardship payment recovery at the time. This will usually be because either:
• making the repayments affected their health or the health of a family member and/or
• making the repayments caused them financial problems.
DWP will need evidence of this, and more detail is on their website.

DWP states the scheme is for those who asked for their hardship payment to be waived between the dates of 1 January 2014 and 11 January 2021. It is not clear to us why this time frame has been adopted. We think 1 January 2014 may be linked to a UC pilot, but are not sure of the relevance of 11 January 2021. If you have a client you think may be eligible but falls outside this time period, we would be interested in hearing from you.

This scheme has been set up following a judicial review brought by Public Law Project’s client, which led to the DWP changing their guidance on hardship payment debt in May 2021. There is some more information on our website: https://publiclawproject.org.uk/resources/dwp-sets-out-policy-for-waiving-and-repaying-universal-credit-hardship-payments/

We would be interested in hearing about your experience of the scheme and the outcome of any applications. If you do make an application and it is refused, PLP may be able to assist. We can be contacted at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)