DWP taking money From Fathers Pension

[dwpmuddle]

Hi,

 

I wonder if anyone could give me some advice on a matter involving my father and the DWP.

 

My father has worked all his life and has not claimed benefit and

 

last year he reached pension age and

 

was informed that some DWP debt recovery department were going to make deductions

from my fathers pension in relation to FRAUD case that apparently had been heard in court in 1994.

 

My father has never been convicted of a crime let alone fraud like the DWP keep saying.

 

They say my father owe them +£5k which the court ordered he paid and costs to the court.

 

We have contacted the court that the DWP say the case was heard at

to which they say they have no record what so ever of any court case taking place in my fathers name

 

I asked the court if they would just allow somebody that's been ordered

to pay the court costs just to walk away without paying

 

they say they would pursue anyone who done that

but they again insisted that no case has ever been heard there

and that the court have no intention of chasing my father for court costs

this call was recorded with the court.

 

We went back to the DWP advising that the court has no record of any such case

that they claim took place to which

 

the DWP just do not care and have said that any appeal is to late

and my father still has to pay this money regardless of anything??

 

Also previous the DWP has said they have CCTV images of him in a post office

to which now they admit this was false information and they do NOT have this.

 

They now say they have a piece of paper that was written in 1994 from another department

saying this case happened so that's what they rely on but as they keep saying regardless

of anything my fathers too late to appeal and been told the deductions will continue.

 

I really do not know what to do as DWP will not listen

and my father is struggling with the deductions being made as he is not working

the hours he used to at work now due to his age.

 

In all this the DWP discussed this with myself without my fathers authorization

and the DWP were more than happy to discuss the whole thing including this phantom court case

amounts owed the lot to which was caught on tape and

 

thinking of getting my father to raise a complaint that they have committed a serious breach of the DPA

by discussing this with myself without his permission

 

i was also able to get documents sent to my father which were useless

but the fact remains i was able to do this without my fathers permission.

 

Should he pursue them on this???

 

My father is very upset that they have labelled him a criminal

and continue to take this money when all he has done is work all his life

and never been on the wrong side of the law.

 

Is there anything else we can do to get this sorted out as

 

DWP say they have no other paperwork to send to my father

 

they keep saying its been over 19 years and we should not expect them to have this information

but they expect to slander my father with false accusations and take money from his pension.

 

The DWP seem to make there own rules up as they go along.

 

Any advice would be so much appreciated as

 

i feel really angry that we can prove what there saying is rubbish

 

but they wont listen hiding behind the fact we run out of time to appeal.

 

Thank You

Edited February 1, 2014 by citizenB

[Mr.P]

Collect as much information about this matter as you can. Contact your local MP and ask for him/her to intervene with the view to referring the case to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman. While this is going on, lodge a complaint with the Independent Case Examiner - the PHSO will usually expect you to have exhausted both the DWP and ICE complaints processes first.

 

You could try submitting a Subject Access Request, but it is unlikely to turn up any documents older than seven years - The DWP do not charge the usual £10 fee, so you (or rather, your father) has nothing to lose.

 

Certainly worth raising a complaint with the ICO about a breach of confidentiality - Add it to the file to send to your MP - Somewhere along the line, some backsides will get a swift kick which may provide some comfort.

[citizenB]

Is there anything else we can do to get this sorted out as DWP say they have no other paperwork to send to my father they keep saying its been over 19 years and we should not expect them to have this information but they expect to slander my father with false accusations and take money from his pension.

 

 

If someone is accusing me of a crime I would damn well expect them to have the evidence to back it up !!

 

This seems to be happening a lot just lately and it is left to the victim to be proving their innoncence !

Edited February 1, 2014 by citizenB

[dwpmuddle]

@ Thanks Mr.P thanks for the information i am assuming that the case examiner would be something to do with the DWP? Certainly be raising this with my fathers local MP

Its nothing short of slander??

 

I have thought about subject access request but again will it go back 20 years that answer clearly no but you never know what maybe lurking in the paperwork so i will do that first thing on Monday.

 

I will also raise a complaint to ICO and send them the recorded call in relation to this DPA breach.

 

I could not agree more with you citizenB the burden of proof should be on the DWP they have some piece of paper written in 1994 that just says that my father owes this money and has been to court

 

Asked them many times to forward such information but they have failed on each occasion to do so instead just receive a couple of pieces of paper that make no sense and does not seem relevant to the situation and they keep sending the same useless paperwork instead of what they say they have???

 

I now have permission to speak to the DWP on my fathers behalf and called them about 30 mins ago spoke with a senior manager who says that they have had payments from my fathers bank in 2007 to which i have just contacted my father who says this is impossible and have advised my father talks with the bank in case they taking them without his permission they have never mentioned this previous which is a bit strange, I brought back up the fact previously they have breached the DPA and i managed to get them to send documents to my father as well to which they refuse to take a complaint in relation to this and change the subject quickly to the fact they keep saying is that your father owes this money and we are instructed by secretary of state to recover it, They have agreed once again for the 4th time to call back the file and will contact me once they get this back, Another pointless waste of time and stunt to stall things.

 

Any S.A.R request would have to go to main DWP as they say there just ordered to collect the money.

 

As previously said my father has never claimed benefits what could i ask the DWP for in S.A.R request? I can not help thinking that somebody else has used my fathers name we are talking 20 years ago but DWP dismiss this idea and say they cant investigate this because of the amount of time elapsed,

 

Thanks for your advice its much appreciated.

[dwpmuddle]

These are the people that are dealing with it.

 

Bradford Contact Centre

 

Debt Management (BF)

PO Box 171

Mitcheldean

Gloucestershire

GL17 0XG

 

UK customers: 0845 850 0293

Overseas customers: +44 (0)161 904 1233

Textphone: 0845 604 6697

[estellyn]

If your father has never claimed benefits, and someone else used your father's national insurance number and name to claim, then maybe it's worth making a report to the police.

[Mr.P]

Any S.A.R request would have to go to main DWP as they say there just ordered to collect the money.

 

As previously said my father has never claimed benefits what could i ask the DWP for in S.A.R request?

 

You should be asking for ALL data relating to this "debt" and prosecution, evidence of any payments made by your father, and any other information held. With a claim that payments had been made in 2007, there should still be some records of the transactions - With a little bit of digging, you should be able to match up the dates with bank statements. If your father does not have bank statements for the period in question, then you'd need to send a SAR to his bank. I would suggest getting a SAR sent off to both the bank and DWP as soon as possible.

 

None of this is going to be quick - The SARs could take 40 days or more, and government complaints channels can be very slow.

[Conniff]

Send a £10 cheque with the bank SAR.

 

 

Keep in mind that you should be entitled to add the statutory interest of 8% to any claim for reimbursement.

[silverfox1961]

Hi,

Here is a link to the DWP data request forms (if you didn't have them already)

 

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dwp-request-for-personal-information