UC ‘glitch’ means massive overpayments. What happens when the DWP demands the money back?
The Department for Work and Pensions is apparently overpaying people by thousands of pounds, due to a ‘glitch’ in the Universal Credit system.
Claimants are unlikely to know that they are being overpaid. But what will happen to them when the government contacts they to demand repayment?
That’s the question posed by Hayley Kercher, of Bridgwater. She did notice what was happening, and reported it to the DWP.
But when she told the department that she believed she had been overpaid as her back account was larger than she expected, she was told she’d have to guess how much had been overpaid – and the money would have to be paid back.
How pathetic!
It is practically demanding that this woman – who correctly reported an overpayment – penalises herself for the DWP’s mistake. It is up to the government to work out the amount of the overpayment, not the claimant.
Worse still is the fact that many people may be unaware that they have been overpaid, and are building up a huge debt that the Tories will demand is returned to them at some point in the future.
It could almost be described as entrapment – a deliberate attempt to force people into debt by paying too much and then clawing it back.
People on Universal Credit can’t afford to be messed around in this way.
The new system is touted as being much fairer than the legacy benefits it replaces – but how can that be true if it can’t even get payments right?
My advice to claimants is: check what you’re getting – and if there’s any hint of overpayment, take steps to work out what the difference is and save up to ensure you can pay it back at some point in the future.
But don’t notify the DWP until you are sure that you can repay the full amount.
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If they overpay you they want it back straight away. If they underpay you, they mess around not paying you what you are owed for years.
Oh dear, the DWP has sent out exactly what the claimants were entitled to. How sad…
I have a current case where the DWP have suspended 50% of my OLD pension totalling£8500 based on “in all probability, I was married”. This is absurd because I was divorced in 2014. The DWP also claim I visited their HQ on 4 days in Nov and was rude ,aggressive and violent to their staff.
I am awaiting a hearing date from the FTT