DWP Attachement to earnings

[marco23]

The DWP has sent a letter saying they're going for an attachment of earnings on a debt, amount owed is £1291,

 

as my partner cant work and im the only one bringing income in then this is going to cause serious hardship,

 

i cant seem to find anything online about having the amount reduced that they're going to recover P/M

[dx100uk]

well this wont be the only letter you've had about this, you'd have had several over the last good few months i expect, have you simply ignored them to date?

 

why have you let it get this far and not already arranged payment or sent them an SAR to make them prove the debt is real and they have all the data required.?

 

you need to give us a lot more info on its history please

 

dx

 

[marco23]

Yes there has been previous letters,

one around two years back which was sent from a debt collection agency acting on behalf of the DWP, they asked for an ins/outs form to be completed so i could pay so much per month off,

 

their reply was they were sending the account back to the DWP as the debt could not be managed as i was in negative income (more going out than coming in),

 

it all went very quite so i let sleeping dogs lie

 

last month out of the blue a letter came giving me a log in number for the site they have at gov.co.uk and i have not been able to log in with the details they have sent me,

 

today the attachment letter came,

im not burying my head in the sand here so it is what it is and if it has to be repaid then so be it

but to my calculations they're going to take 11% P/M back which will be around £132 which will most certainly give us mortgage problems etc 

 

 

[dx100uk]

well you are ignoring them which you should not have done...you need to act.

 

The DWP has the power to recover benefit overpayments and Social Fund loans direct from your wages. This is called a Direct Earnings Attachment and can be done without a court order.

 

The DWP have said that they will only use this method when people don't get in touch or are unwilling to agree a recovery plan. The amount the employer must take out of your wages depends upon your weekly or monthly income, but normally is not more than 20% of your net earnings.

 

Your net earnings are your wages after income tax, National Insurance contributions and pension payment have been taken out. If you have been found guilty of an offence, the amount taken can be doubled to a maximum of 40% of your net earnings. But if other amounts are being taken from your earnings at the same time, the deduction should be reduced so that you should not be left with less than 60% of your net earnings.

 

.............

 

have you any idea when this debt dates from ?

 

you need to quickly send them an SAR put them to strict proof they hold the data to PROVE you owe this debt.

 

 

[fkofilee]

To stop the AOE from DWP - Set up a temporary payment plan  while you do what @dx100uksays above. 

If you do it quick enough it should stop deductions for your next pay check. Be reasonable with what you can pay. 

DWP Debt management I find are reasonable over the phone. 

[marco23]

18 hours ago, dx100uk said:

well you are ignoring them which you should not have done...you need to act.

 

The DWP has the power to recover benefit overpayments and Social Fund loans direct from your wages. This is called a Direct Earnings Attachment and can be done without a court order.

 

The DWP have said that they will only use this method when people don't get in touch or are unwilling to agree a recovery plan. The amount the employer must take out of your wages depends upon your weekly or monthly income, but normally is not more than 20% of your net earnings.

 

Your net earnings are your wages after income tax, National Insurance contributions and pension payment have been taken out. If you have been found guilty of an offence, the amount taken can be doubled to a maximum of 40% of your net earnings. But if other amounts are being taken from your earnings at the same time, the deduction should be reduced so that you should not be left with less than 60% of your net earnings.

 

.............

 

have you any idea when this debt dates from ?

 

you need to quickly send them an SAR put them to strict proof they hold the data to PROVE you owe this debt.

 

 

yes DX the debts from around 3 years ago, it was child bennefit payments they still pay you while your child is attennding a course at college or if they dont go on to further education it ceases to be paid, my daughter had not been going unknown to us and the college marked her as not attending which in turn created the overpayment, its not the end of the world and it has to be paid back because i do owe the money, to my calculations from the letter they sent they will take 11% i estimate that at around £132 P/M, £50 is managable the £132 may see us in trouble with finances,i will SAR them today