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Where the DWP has made an error in the payment of benefits, it is called an official error and as such the monies are NOT recoverable from the recipient. The DWP will ask the person to repay but they have no legal right to recover the monies, the DWP will put direct deductions in place unless you tell them that they cannot do this as "it was an official error" and you should not suffer as a result of their mistake. Contact your welfare rights officers or Citizens Advice for more help

This is nothing new. Because of an administrative mix up, my late father was overpaid some £7000 over a number of years. After his death in 1988, my mother had been repaying the overpayment at £8 per month. In 2006, this changed to £30 per WEEK, taken straight from my mothers pension and higher rate attendance allowance. When I tried to get some sensible answers all I got was "Tough, we can take even more if we wanted to"!

I totally feel for those pensioners, the letters are a frightening shock. I had exactly the same after having working tax credits as a single lady working full time. they seemed like a godsend at first, i gave as much information as i could about earnings found on p60s and estimated income from the previous year. i informed them of a change of job and a difference in income, only 1800 in difference, i was totally shocked when they started to demand back 100 pound i have disputed this over and over, a year later it has jumped to 500 pound, i do not understand and they do not explain, the dwp are bullies they say they want to help then demand it back, its all i need ontop of the crap i deal with with [Bank details removed by Moderator]but that a different story!!!! get these bullies off our backs it is their mistake not ours. please help these pensioners my ticker can just about take this and im only 29 x

the problem is the government make all the benefits so complicated - but the report is extremely inaccurate about overpayments and underpayments. a very one sided report

We received a similar letter regarding my wife's maternity pay. Asking for about 65 pounds, commenting on over payment. It did speak of debt collection... not nice. After watching your program it's made me think... maternity pay is fixed at 112.50 per week, how in ada did we get over paid?

Interesting information. Two years ago when my mother sold her house and moved into a flat she bought her saving came to more than the £15000.00 or so . I wrote and told DWP that she was no longer entitles to Pension Credit and they replied that her case would not be reviewed until 2010. She died in September of this year and doing probate I have been told not to release the will as she owes the government money. I have been waiting now for three months, to release the funds to the beneficeries but now I have to wait. This came at a time of grief just because I assume no one could be bothered to alter her benefits at the time. Just think if it had gone on to 2010 and she was still alive they would send a demand for about £5000 just because no one could be bothered to review her benefits.

My mother received attendance allowance and when she went into hospital I informed the DWP. I also informed them when she had been in hospital for more than 4 weeks and one day. This was in early March 2008. It took them until August before I got a "grab-back letter" - on the day of her funeral. They also have overpaid her pension (despite sending the special death form in immediately). It is now December 1st and I am still waiting to settle her estate because the Debt Recovery section say they have never received the information from the DWP Office!

I am dumbfounded that these type of mistakes are occurring and very upset with the way in which these departments are mis-managed.

My father passed away age 86 In August 2008 in November I was contacted by DWP Estates department saying my father may have been overpaid and they need to details of the capital he held in Feb 2004 when he was first awarded the benefit. I suggested that they could get this information from the Pension Credit as they visited his home and photocopied proofs of his capital, a very unhelpful person told me that they cannot get that information because they are not the same department, I have to supply it at and any costs from the banks/building socities will not be covered by them I have to pay. They say that there is a discrepancy in the amount of capital he held in Feb 2004 and August 2008. Well he has 86 unable to get out of his home. I would like advise on how to progress with this, do they have a right to claim it back?

I cannot believe how these people are being treated. They are someone's mother, father, brother, sister and so on, not people who try to cheat the DWP out of money. These people have erned the right to this money as they have worked for over many years. I hope the DWP start treating these people with the respect they deserve and soon. Learn from the mistakes you have already made DWP and not send any more of those letters upseting the older generation for no reason!

This treatment by the DWP does not surprise me. They are amazingly inefficient. I was falsely accused of fraud, despite their dept having all the relevant documents to prove ottherwise, and have been harassed over a period of five years. Fortunately, through my voluntary work I attend regular updates on entitlements, I am able to check my own each. Most most people are not so lucky and have to accept the word of the DWP.
[Personal details removed by Moderator]

I had a final demand, being the executor of my late mother's will. I have had to pay £1700 out of the estate which they said was due from when she was in a care home. I wrote to them and explained that she was perfectly capable of sorting out her finances at that time and did not want to involve me at all in it and I assumed that both she and DWP knew what was correct at the time. I was very uset and surprised to receive a final demand shortly after I obtained probate and felt threatened by the tone of the letter from 'debt collection'. As this amount was paid to her several years ago, I cannot see why I now am the loser from her small estate.

the dwp have a lot to answer for because its not only the pensioners that are being messed about. i myself claim benefits for my two small children and have been messed about several times. the dwp are under the impression that it is perfectly fine to leave anyone with less money per week than the legal lower limit. they say they pay money in a professional way but i have yet to see this and i am slowly losing faith in getting my problems with them sorted out any time soon.

This also happens to disabled people claiming tax credits too. I cant tell you how many times I have had problems with my payments and paperwork.

I am 25, I have cerebral palsy and feel vunerable when it comes to finances. I dread the day the dwp send me a letter saying i have been over paid as it has happened to many of my friends who also claim the benifit.

In the past i was owed payments by the dwp. Like the lady in your flim i could only get 3 months back.

The system needs inproving for the sake of the vunerable people the govenment are trying to help.

DWP are very efficient at claiming back overpayments, but as your presenter said they are very slow to repay. My mother was admitted to hospital in May 2008 and discharged to home 11 sept. DWP stopped her pension credits and attendance allowance for this period. I advised them on 12 Sept that she had returned home and have been trying to get her attendance allowance and pension credits reinstated eversince. My mother is 100+, if I wasn't here to look after her interests I am sure nothing would happen. The cynic in me thinks that pensioners in their 1000s are being short changed across the country, saving the govt millions.

How familiar this all sounded, for the last 12 months I have been trying to sort out a problem for my Brother in law where the DWP debt collection service have been taking money from his pension credit, which is all to do with a mistake made by another gov. dept. after my Sister died. A senior official at Mitcheldean admitted to me it was a grossly unfair system but they had been 'told' to do it. It is becoming a long and laborious complaint but on the one occasion we got close to a tribunal appearance they reduced the amount owing by a 'few' pounds which meant we had to start the process all over again!

I have been trying since February to reclaim 2 years of pension credit money which I have overpaid. They corrected the mistake and gave me 2 months money back but not the 2 years. I have written sending letter by registered post and phoned but to no avail. They said they had sent me 2 letters about this but I havent received one. What can I do to reclaim this money?

im eddie aged 34 i have been on benifits since i whitnesed two murders both horrific and there has been times when the department of work and pensions have made mastkes with me just a few weeks ago i rang them up to say my banck account had been closed down i got told they sent my money by giro check on a friday when i rang them up on the tuesday when i was dew to be paid i got told they sent it out the day befor i was dew and i had to wait three days to see if it turn up befoe they could do anything at the time i had no gas no electric or food as had to budget for the week i am on medication dew to my health as i was in hostpital for three moths a year aga and they still did not help now i find it wrong that the goverment let our pensions down as what they went through to keep this country from being taken over by hitler in the second world war and i think it is atroshers the was the goverment treats them if thats the way they treat our pensioner who i class as all heros then i recon they should live as a pensioner for 6 months with what they give our pensioner from eddie in widnes

The DWP have overpaid me in excess of £4k Incapacity Benefit in error over a perid of more than two years despite my wife ringing them and asking them to stop paying me at an early stage.
The DWP have written recently offering no apologies and demanding repayment saying that the £4k+ must be repaid by law.
I have recently lodged an appeal application and am waiting a reply.

My mother has been in receipt of Pension Credits for some years now and she has received a reduction in her payments for her mortgage effective December 2008. She is on a fixed rate mortgage which doesn't expire until June 2009, however, she has been told that her payments will reduce anyway. Furthermore, if the interest rate goes to zero, as has been mentioned, her allowance for her mortgage will also go to zero which means she will be £450 per month worse off. Aparently this is an anomaly within the governments guidelines. So much for having all this unclaimed money taht pensioners are entitled to!
Surely this can't be right

The item regarding the Department for Work & Pensions comes as no surprise to me. My 89 year old father claimed a Bereavement Payment of £2,000, which DWP contested. I appealed to the Tribunal and found that it is a quasi-legalistic procedure which is heavily weighted in favour of the DWP, they are, after all, allegedly experts in the field of Benefit Law. After reading hundreds of pages of complex legislation, I prepared a case. The DWP issued numerous papers most of them containing serious factual errors all of which were pointed out but not corrected. At the Tribunal hearing DWP did not turn up - the Tribunal Chairman said that this was normal. I had a strong case and won the Appeal. After 8 weeks I contacted DWP asking for payment which they refused, saying that DWP had the right to appeal and then did so. The documents provided to me said that the Appeal had to be commenced within one month of the hearing, so the Appeal was out of time. However, the Tribunal Chairman granted them additional time despite compelling representations being made (including damage to my father's health)that it would be inequitable to do so. The next stage will involve a barrister being appointed by DWP (at the Taxpayer's expense, of course)and to have'Equality of Arms' my father will need to do the same, the legal costs will far outweigh the payment at issue.

The system is heavily biased in favour of DWP, if they appeal they force you to incur heavy costs. If they lose and forget to appeal in time, they just bend the ear of the friendly Tribunal Chairman who does whatever they want, again forcing you to bear heavy legal costs.

The legal system provides no equitable route so TV programmes such as Watchdog are the only means of obtaining justice in Britain. Be under no illusion that the DWP aim to make recovering sums due to you as difficut and expensive as possible. DWP knows that the media cannot take everybody's case and, as it has the Tribunal process neatly sewn up, it will continue to deny benefits which are due.

On 6th.May I claimed Pension Credit. It was agreed that it could, and Would, be backdated six months to 6th Dec 2007.

Twice they have lost my claim; once transferred it to another office in error, and twice when I have rung, despite a N.I.No. they have totally confused me with someone else.

Each time I ring I am told that they can see no reason why payments have not been made and promise to expedite matters immediately.

As I said, my claim was made on 6th. May. I rest my case.

As an executor of a will, I'm being chased by DWP for a £3000+ overpayment of pension credit. DWP told a 94 year old relative that she was entitled to pension credit but after her death two years later DWP want it all back. A DWP inspector allegedly verified her savings at the time but the savings declared on her behalf bore no relation to the actual savings. I suspect DWP was under Government pressure to distribute pension credit and consequently engineered circumstances to meet targets. The overpayment seems a result of a misdirection but DWP is still demanding repayment. As executor, I become personally liable for the debt even though the estate has been distributed. The relative died in April 2007 yet DWP made no contact until November 2007. The case is ongoing and currently under appeal.

My husband and myself are caught in this same trap. The DWP said they have tried to pay us our underpayment accrued in 2008 of nearly £700 since September, but it keeps failing. They keep fobbing us off, we even had to go to the bank and get them to fill in a forum about the account. What I couldn't understand was.. if they can pay our weekly Pension Credit into our bank account, how come they keep failing to pay us the underpayment. This stinks, they are liars playing for time so they would only have to pay us 3 months. If this new law came out in October, they can't apply this retrospectively, that's surely illegal and morally wrong. They made the mistake, so they should pay. I had to use all my savings for the months we were underpaid just to make ends meet.

So far, the DWP/pensioner item has received 23 comments, the 'Stinky trainers'item has received 297!

Small wonder that DWP don't take complaints too seriously.

I cannot understand (see number 18 above) why, if people know they are being overpaid, they do not simply put the money into a savings account until it is claimed back. Surely if people know they are being overpaid then they are in effect spending money which they know does not belong to them. This behaviour does none of the genuine causes any favours.

Many comments about relatives of deceased parents having to cope with Debt recovery letters for 'pension credit overpayments'. I have recently contacted my MP because I received a claim against the estate of my late mother. This was very upsetting at a time of bereavement. Fortunately, after much correspondence I found a letter sent to my mother from the Dept. noting her change of circumstance in selling her house to move to a Residential Home & confirming there would be no change to her pension credit payments. Immediately the Recovery Unit closed the case. Presumably, had this letter not been found there would have continued to be a claim against the estate. During an Assessed Income Period (usually five years)there can be no change in payments and therefore no overpayment. Why then did the Dept not check their records before sending me a claim against the estate. Perhaps the only reason their claim against my mother's estate was dropped was because their reords were not kept properly or records kept at all! It seems many other relatives of loved ones are facing the same problem at a time of bereavement. My complaint to my MP was to try to avoid this happening to others. What irony I am now reading about the similar experiences of others.

With regards to claiming money from an estate. The law states any overpayment which is recoverable from a customer during their lifetime is recoverable from their estate, therefore if there is an estate the DWP would ask for it back from this. If there is no estate they would not expect it to be paid but can still ask.

If a person is in receipt of a means tested benefit, and probate is granted on their estate then under Section 126 of the Social Security Administration on Estates Act 1992. This is a standard check and in most cases everything has been declared correctly. If there appears to be an overpayment they will ask for bank statements for relevant dates and/or periods. Now, although this info doesn't have to be given it will be against the interests of the estate, as the law says they can use the value of probate should this not be given, which of course will result in a much higher overpayment. The cost of this is to be paid for by the estate.

All overpayments in this respect are recovered under Social Security Administration of Estates Act 1971 therefore yes they do have a right to claim it back, and they can take to County Court if required.

The DWP will not contact people in these cases until probate/letters of adminstration has been granted.

If the estate is distributed either whilst under notice or without giving creditors time to come forward then the executor becomes personally liable for the overpayment.

I just wanted to add as well that i believe the Mitcheldean address is just a postal address, post is then distributed to the relevant office.

You can tell i've had dealings with them before.

The DWP are useless. They sent me a "Debt Management" letter in January this year, demanding £110 of income support back.

I wrote back, proving it was their mistake, and that I shouldn't have to pay it back.

Nearly a year later, they've not replied, and when I phone them each month - they're "working on it".

Oh, and did I mention the overpayment in question is from OVER TWO YEARS AGO?

Hi

I am currently going through a similar dispute with DWP over Income support, they say that I been overpayed by £14,000, this came up in August last year. They have admitted it was their mistake and in June of this year I got letter from them saying that they had written the debt off and that I would never be bothered again regarding this.
Two weeks ago I recieved a letter saying they wanted me me to pay £13,000, apparently it had gone to a paper appeal, without me signing the official form and without even contacting me or the CAB, the new amount had been reduced by £800. Since this has been going on the stress has led to me having a heart attack, I am now taking this matter up with the local MP as well as CAB.

THe main problem is that the goverment get blamed when it is the office workers that make the mistakes.
I am in complaint with the Pension Service over the loss of my application for State Pension made in 2007.
THey admit the loss but then state because I did not claim I stand to lose this and that.
The complaint procedure relies on replies being received. It is only when the complaint gets out of the hands of the office lot that anything gets done.

I am an executor of my father's estate. Within days of probate being granted I had a demanding letter from the DWP wanting to know about all of my father's assets on the day that he died, and warning me about distributing his modest estate. I sent them the information, now they are demanding passbook and statements back to October 2003, in attempt to claim overpaid pension credit. I suspect that when the pension credit was brought in in October 2003 many long-lived pensioners were over the savings limits.

The DWP have discovered this soft pot, for recovering amounts of overpaid pension credit due to problems with the introduction of pension credit. As yet, I have not settled with the DWP, an amount of possibly several pounds, but there ought to be a limitation in matters of deceased persons.

My mother died in February 2008, she had recieved pension credits from 2004 @ around £16 a week then when she was registerd blind the pension credit was raised without her asking for it to around £64 a week. When she sold her flat to go into a sheltered housing flat I informed the pension service and was told it would make no difference until her review which was in 2010 ,I also read this in her information booklet.After probate the pension credit contacted me as executor to say not to distribute her estate. I called them, they sent me forms, then more forms and now 10 months after she has died I am still waiting to see what they want paid back. This has been so distressing for me especially when it first started, now it just makes me sad and angry that she worked and paid taxes all her life and never asked for any help ,until a social worker told her to apply for pension credit.

Hi,
I fought for DLA for one year, I was refused at first, went to appeal lost, went to appeal on a point of law won.
Was awarded DLA for two years, until November 2007 in May 2007 I was sent a letter from the DWP stating they would send me a continuation form in due course.
I never received the form, when I phoned the DWP to ask were the form was they said tough it’s to late now, you have lost your benefits, there is no appeal.
I went to the welfare wrights, who explained my situation, the DWP who said they would send him the form to fill out; they sent that form to late, so he appealed. He won the right to appeal in January this year 2008. He set out the grounds of the appeal, sent it to the DWP in January 2008
We are still waiting for a reply, the welfare wrights have given up trying to get a response I have lost one years benefit, I am entitled to, but the DWP just do not care.
I have sent letters of complaint to no avail.

I am also having an oral appeal hearing this Thursday, I was entitled to benefits following 3 heart attacks four years ago however the initial application was wrongly dismissed, I have since qualified and I am receiving higher rate DLA. I now seek back payments for three years, I will let you know how it goes!

I have received a letter telling me that the DWP have overpaid my father's pension - 4 months after he died!

What a shame employees of the DWP cannot fight back because of the confidentiality clauses in both contract of service and Acts of Parliament. They too are aware of the distress caused to the vulnerable, disabled and elderly who, for whatever the cause, have received too much benefit and have to be asked for repayment. It's also very distressing for the staff who take calls from customer's in these cirmcumstances. Elderly widows and widowers in tears, never in debt before, desperate to find a way to repay the Department. The staff are not heartless and try their very best to avoid this type of distress. What about when they do give good service! No that's not news worthy is it! What a shame.

Its opportune that the ´óÏó´«Ã½ are broadcasting Little Dorrit, its worth reading the book, because Dicken's description of the "Circumlocution Office" bears a freaky resemblance to the operation of the DWP!!! The more we change the more we stay the same.

My daughter who is 18 phoned the DWP for a form to claim benefit when she was unemployed at the beginning of October - eight weeks later she is still awaiting the form - and has now finally found employmnet. I suspect they keep you waiting in the hope that you will find employment and won't have to claim any money. Shocking!!

Dear Watchdog,

I am writeing to you for some HELP !!I have been been given a death sentance of £6952.40 Of Income Support. They will not reply to any of my frequent phone calls. The answer is always, "with Glasgow" I have no idea as to how to help myself?. They have made a mistake. One appeal got lost, and since July, they just leave me worrying. What can I do ??????

Sorry I never said that it is the DWP who have put me into this bother.

From happyIrishHelen

The burning issue on many of these comments is the fact that people are saying that they have informed of changes and have then been asked for the money back sometime along the line - if you know you are not entitled to the money but it is still being paid, why are people then spending that money? If you keep it in an account and don't use it then there should be no issue when it comes to them recovering the overpayment. In a perfect world everyone should get what they need when they need it but everyone forgets that society nowadays want to live on benefits - this is not what they are for and if people were sensible about it then there wouldn't be a shortfall of funds and then pensioners, vulnerable people etc will get the help that they need. Whatever happened to common sense?!

My father received a demand for £18,447, for overdue payment of housing benefit and council tax benefit, He has never applied for a benefit in his life, and after suffering a stroke in 1997, someone took it upon themselves from the council to call on him, due to his condition and not knowing who this person was, and he was on his own, he didn't give any information and didn't sign anything, but he was then told he is entilted to the benefits and he got them until 2006, when he was told he was not entitled and they demanded the full sum back within 7 days, or it would go to the bailiffs, this is when I found out, my dad handed over, over £3000.00, but the council will not produce proof that my dad asked for the benefits, and once again they have put the matter on hold, while my dad is fretting they are doing nothing, this is only part of the story, as it gets alot worse, as they have a man who cannot walk unadided going into a housing office, of which he has no knowledge, I am fighting this with all my strenght, if you get through to someone helpful it can be good, but the majority of the staff are totally unhelpful, I feel like a very small fish in a very big sea, but I am and will keep trying to sort this out, but it is always at my expense, and you can never speak to the same person twice.
Jackie

This type of error is far from rare. With the number of pensioners they have to deal with, there are bound to be mistakes but it is the attitude of these people which is most at fault. My Mother-in-Law received one of these debt letters shortly after the death of her husband. She had actually had a man from the Pensions Agency visit her to help her fill in forms etc. To ensure he had the correct figures for the bank accounts he even went with my sister-in-law to the bank to get up to date statements. He then calculated how much my mother-in-law would receive. Following that, she received payments which varied virtually every week and bore no relationship to what she had been told she would receive. When she received the letter from the "Debt Department" she was most distressed, just like the lady in your programme. She was 86 and had never had debts. I complained on her behalf and eventually they agreed to write off the debt but there was no real apology.

At the same time, she received a letter from her local council (Dudley) claiming that she owed them Council Tax (she had been told she wouldn't have to pay council tax as she was getting pension credit). I contacted the council and they explained it was because she wasn't actually entitled to "Guaranteed" pension credit. Their attitude was entirly different from that of the Pensions Agency. I had a very nice letter from the chief executive explaining that the Pensions Agency had first told them my mother in law was entitled to guaranteed pension credit but several months later, told them that she wasn't! They had no choice but to sednd a demand for Council Tax.

I am dealing with my mum's estate and the DWP have demanded I send them copies of my mother's account statements going back to the year 2000. Having read the various blogs, I am convinced that my mum did not make any fraudulent claims for pension credit and that the mistakes have been made by the DWP. How do I fight this injustice, and where can I go to get advice on how to deal with these useless pen pushers?

DWP Just as bad with Working Tax Credit. Last December I told them I was living with a new partner so they stopped my single claim and said I would have to repay £1000. They sent a credit slip to pay it all at once so I contacted them and have been paying back £100 per month. I made a joint claim with my partner but did not receive any money till June. They back dated it to March (3 months Max allowed to backdate) Appealed because not my fault but failed. Spoke to a complaints Manager, who told to appeal again. Sent in 23/10/08 received a reply dated 27/11/08 (4 weeks later)saying they have received it and I will hear from them before 27 FEB 2009 ( Another 12 weeks). This is for WTC for period Jan and Feb 2008. Numerous letters and phone calls and they just give out wrong information till I question what they are saying. They then ask a supervisor and come back with a different answer.

further to my previous post, the law under which benefit is recovered is Social Security Admin Act 1992 Section 71, not Act 1971.

It's not only pensioners being affected by this. According to them I am due £146.14. They told me they would start taking payments from the 5th of December at 18.30 per fortnight. I contacted them to let them know I am still on incapcity with a mortgage to pay and that I could not afford that. They made arrangements for a smaller amount but meanwhile they took £18.30 before the original date stated. I spoke to somebody and they said that they would send me a giro with the money all ready taken. However I have now been told that they will not refund that money and it is now going to be taken off of my income support. They seem to be able to take money off whenever they want and they won't give it back.

This problem is not confined to 'pensioners'.
I started university in September. I of course contacted the DWP to inform them of changes etc. They than stopped my benefits, housing and council tax benefits too.
I then contacted them to appeal because the decision was wrong, I even enclosed a copy of THEIR own rules on the situation! By now I was having letters stating I would have to re-apply for the other benefits I had lost, even though it wasn't my mistake!
So, here I am, still waiting for the DWP to make things right and I'm also having to sort my council tax out and make sure I pay my mortgage until it is!

Many of the items posted relate to the problems in knowing what the rules are and whether DWP have the right to go back many years. Most original paperwork is only kept by DWP for a short period and certainly papers going back 5 years are unlikely to be available.

The golden rule is that you must keep copies of any claims and not sign papers until you have copies. This is difficult for the elderly who have been visited by DWP staff who are genuinely trying to ensure that they get the benefits to which they are entitled and fill out the forms on site and take them away.

In the absence of any firm evidence, there will be a presumption that the DWP processed the claim correctly based on the information supplied.

DWP will shortly be issuing a Rights Charter clarifying what can be expected of each party. In my view DWP should be required to retain original signed copies of claims and should send out a clear statement of the benefit claimed, what information was supplied and in what circumstances there entitlement could change. At least that way there would be certainty.

I have a great deal of sympathy for the stress caused to frontline DWP staff and the difficulties they work under. However, they do have the choice of whether or not to work for DWP, those in need of benefits have no choice but to deal with DWP and similar GO

The Government need to get their act together the DWP are becoming almost as bad as the CSA. I have been on statutory sick pay of 75.40 since April 2008 (I still am employed) whilst awaiting bowel surgery and after 28 weeks applied for incapacity benefit but as my 28 weeks ended on the 28th October I was put on to the new Employment Support Allowance. This has meant that my income is now reduced even further to 60.50 a week where as if I was on the old incapacity benefit it would have stayed at 75.40. I am already having to use my savings to meet my mortgage payments. The government penalise those who save as my savings were to pay my outstanding mortgage when my endowment policy matures in 2 years time as this has a shortfall of approx £60000.I do not understand how they can justify cutting the payment from SSP to ESA when most people on long term sick leave are already struggling on their reduced income. I was also made to complete a whole new booklet the night before I was due into surgery despite the same information already having been sent in on the incapacity form causing a great deal of emotional upset at an already distressing time and adding to my current health issues. I am due to be off for at least a further 3 months following surgery and am being told that I will have to attend interviews to assist me in finding a job even though I still have a job. The DWP do not seem to know what they are doing. I have also been having problems with them for the last 7 months over a claim for DLA as I have a disability to but even though by I fall into the definition of having a disability they say I do not qualify for DLA. The whole system needs looking at and a more humane approach be taken - we are not all trying to fiddle the system as this government seems to think!!!!

re message 50 - it should read 6000 shortfall - not 60000.

the dwp has no accountability for its efficiency, and shows no signs of getting its house in order.what reaches the media is the tip of the iceberg. politics is the driving force, rather than caring for the vast majority of hard working people, who are now in a position of need, not forgetting that 26 million working people are still paying roughly £130 pw for this level of insurance.
There are many competent people within the DWP who could speak out but are afraid for their jobs.
I believe the only and proper answer to resolve all the injustices which are happening every day, is a full and indepth judicial enquiry free from government influence to ensure truth and validity.
after all we all pay for this and one day may all need it. for i am not happy, paying for an insurance this expensive that does not deliver and been told i cannot cancel or question.

My father passed away in March 2008. I received a letter from the DWP (after probate had been granted) asking for information about the estate with details held at the time the benifit was paid. My father was deaf and blind and had always had help and advice from his social workers about what benefit he was entiled to.
Another letter on 12/09/08 said that he may have been paid too much income support and pensions credit. I did ring the DWP to discuss what I needed to send and as I lived in Holland, he said I did not need to send all the bank statements, just the information about any premium bonds he had, this I did and I haven't heard from them since. They have also told me not to distribute the estate as I would then be liable for any claim they might make.
I would like advice please on how to progress with this, do they have a right to claim back if mistakes have been made. I am sure my father gave all the information necessary at the time of assessment. Why are there so many people with this simular problem?

In 1999 I was 19 and I became ill and was claiming DLA for about a year but a few years later the DWP stated I was overpaid by £2000. I have been repaying it over the past few years at a rate of £5 per month. I was wondering do I still have to give this money back as it was an error on their behalf.

The problem with all this is that the people making all these mistakes hide behind the fact that the government gets the blame .
When a case gets to someone
in goverment it is usually sorted out.
THe Pension Service has lost my application for my state pension and are now saying its my fault for not claiming it and has stopped other benefits.
They will not reply to letters.
Perhaps Watchdog should tell us the contact where we can get our cases sorted out.

I too have been informed of funds overpaid to me and have a demand for close on a thousand pounds to be returned to them. Isn't it truly amazing that while we are going through the "biggest world financial crisis in history" that I have been told it would have been better to have spent the funds given to me rather than save for unforseen future events, i.e. better to sqander the governments handouts rather than use them wisely - perhaps that is why this country is in such a financial mess !

My Mother has had two bad experiences with the Benefits Office.

In July 2001, unknown to me, two ‘ladies’ from the Benefits Office visited my Mother who was 81years old at the time and asked to look at her bankbooks. THREE YEARS LATER the Benefits Office informed my Mother they had overpaid her and she had to pay back £98.01.

By this time my Mother had been diagnosed with dementia and I spent the next year trying to find out why she owed this money.

In July 2006 I received a letter from the Benefits Office saying they were going to stop this money out of my Mothers pension. On the same day I received a letter from the Debt Centre Manager confirming that she owed this money and also revealed that she had a fraud mark against her name. I was absolutely horrified and my Mother would have been had she understood.

I wrote an official letter of complaint to the Benefits Office. I didn’t get a reply but they did eventually pay the money back.

In November 2007 the Benefit office stopped £50.35 per week from my Mothers benefits because she had someone living with her. These people are carer’s who stay on a rota system and change every few weeks. Again I wrote and rang to explain this and had two visits from an officer at the Benefits Office, all she could say was ‘she’s got someone living with her’.

In August, myself and my mothers Care Manager from Social Services wrote to them again and they conveniently waited till October to reply saying they were going to restart paying this money again ‘due to a change of circumstances’

There was no change of circumstances and the reason they didn’t reply until October was because, as from October they only had to backdate monies owed 3 months, before October it was 6 months. This payment was backdated to July 2008, therefore the Benefits Office presently owe my Mother £1,611.20.

These are the facts, they do not take into account the extreme stress this causes when you are trying to get the best care for your 88 year old mother who is severely disabled and has dementia.

I hadn't realised that so many mistakes/injustices were happening. I have recently lost my Father and also grieving. Within days of probate being granted I also received a threatening letter to say that DWP thought that my Father had been overpaid Pension Credit. By this time I had already distributed the estate. The upshot is that DWP are now chasing me for 4 years overpayment of Pension Credit to the sum of nearly £5000. The letter they sent was very short with only dates and amounts of the overpayment. I am now asking them for further information and a breakdown of their calculations. I will be using this in an appeal process. I have gone to the CAB and they are going to advise me. If anyone has any more advice, please let me know.

That's fine

That's fine.

Income Support (IS) and Pension Credit (PC) are means-tested benefits. Therefore when you claim you MUST declare ALL your assets. Failure to do will mean you are paid IS and PC at the wrong rate. Simply put, the more money you have the less IS and PC you get. Therefore if you forget to tell the Pension Service / DWP you have a drawer full of premium bonds or windfall shares from when a building society became a bank, the chances are you will have been paid too much. The DWP will then attempt to claim this money back even after death. However, what you should know is that benefit overpayment calculations are done by over-worked, underpaid Administrative Officers. Once a calculation is completed, it has to be audited and checked by someone called a Decision Maker. I understand that because of a large back-log of cases recently, a huge number were simply done without being checked. This meant the Decision Maker people simply sent a claim letter out - there was no real checking done! If you receive one of these letters there is something you should know; YOU HAVE THE RIGHT OF APPEAL. Appeal against the amount being demanded back by the DWP and ask to see how they worked out the figures. Visit:

We in a similar position as described by Prince1864. Mum died, probate informed DWP and we got the "stat" letter. Not a huge estate involved at all, but it seems the DWP want a chunk of it. Asking for proof of why they think she owed money they sent a photocopy of the form she had completed at the time asking for pension credits. But it was not in her handwriting, although the signature is probably hers. She was mentally missing on some cylinders, and either deliberately or forgetfully did not declare that she had about £30,000 in savings, premium bonds and Income Bonds. We are fending off the DWP currently, but they are getting snippy now. We still have no idea how much they actually want, either. They won't tell us.
Do we just pay up?