Overpayment of JSA

[evule1]

I need some help with a JSA overpayment, please.

I am working. My partner is unemployed at the moment and as I don't earn enough money we have a JSA claim together. The claim is in my partner's name.

I changed an employer almost 3 months ago and we immediately informed the JCP. We always supply all the information in time and my partner is taking my payslips and the completed B7 form every time he signs on.

We were informed that it may take some time for the Benefit Centre to process our claim as there is a backlog of one month.

Two months later there was no answer so we called them. And not just once. We spent around £30 on phone calls to JCP Benefit Centre trying to tell them that if they don't sort it out soon they may overpay us.

JCP sent letters to my current employer asking her to fill in various forms about how much my partner earned there. We corrected them saying it was actually me who is working and they should know that. So my employer filled in all they wanted. Several weeks later, hours in phone calls and endless visits to our local JCP office we thought everything will be fine just in time for Christmas.

What a nice surprise when we received a letter on Saturday 27/12/12 dated 20/12/12 informing us of an overpayment of £290.60 for the period of 19/10/12 - 15/11/12 plus civil penalty amount of £50 totalling £340.60!!!

Aparently we did not inform JCP about the changes in time. And I had two jobs in that period. Neither of which is correct.

I calculated that there is an actual overpayment but only about £68. I am quite happy for JCP to take that back although it shouldn't occur in the first place. What I am not happy about is the maladministration.

[honeybee13]

Hello and welcome to CAG.

 

I'll move your thread to the benefits forum, where people should be able to advise you. I'll leave a short term redirect on this forum.

 

My best, HB

[Nystagmite]

Do you have any evidence of what you're saying with regards to the overpayment?

[Conniff]

I think I would ask them to take me to court for it and you will make a counter claim for the expenses their incompetence has forced on them.

[evule1]

We have photocopies of some forms but not all as we did not expect this to happen so we were just supplying JCP with what they asked for and not thought anything of it.

About a month ago we were adviced to start taking copies. Just in case.

[Conniff]

You can send them a subject access request which gives them a statutory time limit on supplying you with everything they have on you including all correspondence. Max cost £10 so send a cheque for that amount.

[Nystagmite]

DWP don't charge for SAR.

[Conniff]

That's nice to know. They must get it in some other way as they will never be out of pocket.

[evule1]

Who do I write to for this SAR, just the jobcentre?

[antone]

Who do I write to for this SAR, just the jobcentre?

 

Send it to the Benefit Centre that processes your claim, not to the Jobcentre where you sign on.

 

If you can prove what you say here (that you did inform them of the changes in your circumstances) then you have a good case that the overpayment is due to official error and therefore not recoverable.

[Nystagmite]

The address of the benefit delivery centre (BDC) should be on any letter you receive about your benefits.

[estellyn]

Appeal the overpayment immediately on grounds of official error. These overpayments are not recoverable under social security law - even the bit of the overpayment that is correct.

[evule1]

Thank you for advice to everybody who wrote.

 

We appealed, supplied the JCP and the Benefit Office with some more forms they required and put in another official complaint. We also wrote to our local MP.

So far we only had reply from him saying that he is looking into it. We had no replies from the JCP or the Benefit Office.

 

If anybody has any other valid comments or ideas, please write.

 

You were all most helpful. Thanks again.

 

evule1

[evule1]

Hi everybody,

this is a little update on my last post.

Great thanks has to go to everyone who helped in any way. We had the decesion overturned and the overpayment wiped out. We also received a letter of apology from the Benefit centre manager.

It pays to fight for the right thing.

Thanks again

evule1

[Conniff]

That's great, I'm so pleased.

[antone]

Excellent, and thanks for coming back to let us know. This will help future CAGgers with similar problems.

[Mr.P]

We had the decesion overturned and the overpayment wiped out. We also received a letter of apology from the Benefit centre manager.

 

I had a similar experience a couple of years ago working part time temping. Each visit to the JCP, I would fill out the forms, watch the advisor complete the screen work, and then get copies of all the paperwork. After about two months, the working hours started to ramp up so I signed off and got an demand for overpayment a few months later. What narked me was the "because you haven't told us of..." statement. After a couple of strongly worded letters, the last including the line "If I am now expected to maintain records to cover for the institutional incompetence of your staff, kindly instruct your procurement department to contact me to discuss conditions and fees to access the data."

 

The "debt" was written off, but no apology was ever received, so I'm still annoyed with the muppets over at Cheltenham.