Just been told I owe £1,040 back in JSA overpayments

[Hillsey]

Hoping I can get some advice. After nearly 2 years out of work I recently signed off as I haver now found a job. Called the Newcastle call centre to see if there was any final payment due only to be told that I owed them money. This is apparently due to my wife's earnings. My issue is that they have had full details of my wife's part time earnings from day one and they have paid. I am not to know that they have screwed up.

 

Are they no going to come after me or will they relent as it is their mistake?

 

[lilyx0xmunster]

have you kept copies of all paperwork sent and received by you to them and vice versa as without this they won't budge and you could end up a statistic ( cos numbers look good to government about dwp convictions) did you ensure you told them everytime you signed on your wife was working??.. they will try and pursue a course of you knew it was wrong and you should have kept on at us to change things but, 9 times out of ten people don't and it seems the few that do and end up caught in their mistakes end up being tarred with the same brush.. go and find a CAB with a damn good benefit expert in there or you could find yourself with a conviction as more little people being caught look good in figures instead of major fraudsters who take thousands....

[Nystagmite]

have you asked where that figure comes from?

[Hillsey]

No not yet but I will ask.

 

I have kept most if not all of the paperwork. They always knew my wife worked and have asked for copies of her payslips which I have always provided. As far as I can see everything they have asked for in terms of forms being completed and requests for information I have provided them. This is them getting it wrong not me defrauding them.

[antone]

have you kept copies of all paperwork sent and received by you to them and vice versa as without this they won't budge and you could end up a statistic ( cos numbers look good to government about dwp convictions) did you ensure you told them everytime you signed on your wife was working??.. they will try and pursue a course of you knew it was wrong and you should have kept on at us to change things but, 9 times out of ten people don't and it seems the few that do and end up caught in their mistakes end up being tarred with the same brush.. go and find a CAB with a damn good benefit expert in there or you could find yourself with a conviction as more little people being caught look good in figures instead of major fraudsters who take thousands....

 

This advice is, at this stage, a little alarmist. At this point they seem to be looking to reclaim an overpayment, but nothing as yet suggests they are pursuing a criminal fraud enquiry. Most overpayments are not fraud and are not treated as such, so until we have some reason to think that they suspect fraud, let's not get carried away with warnings of "convictions" and so on.

 

OP, if you can demonstrate that you have kept the DWP fully informed of your wife's earnings then it may be possible to argue that the overpayment is the result of administrative error and therefore not recoverable from you. But first thing's first: definitely get a breakdown of how they have arrived at the figure they've given you.

[Nystagmite]

There's something called Subject Access Review, (SAR) which I believe is everything they have on you relating to your claim. Ask for this.

[Hillsey]

Thanks for all the advice guys. Should I be proactive and start chasing them for answers or wait for some sort of correspondence from them? I was only told this over the phone, nothing in writing as yet.

[antone]

Thanks for all the advice guys. Should I be proactive and start chasing them for answers or wait for some sort of correspondence from them? I was only told this over the phone, nothing in writing as yet.

 

I would contact them and ask for a breakdown in writing of how they arrived at the figure. The sooner you take care of this, the better.

 

As Nystagmite said, you could also send a SAR asking for all the information they hold about you. You'd need to do this in writing to your Benefit Centre. The DWP does not charge the permitted £10 fee for this.