General Chat

We were awarded rent allowance when I did not think we were eligible so I kept the money by and we were able to pay it back.

At a similar time, OH queried he tax credits he was being awarded and was tld that they were, in fact, quite correct. Yesterday there was a letter telling us we owe three thousand odd pounds in tax credits awarded in error.

are we supposed to put all our money by , just in case they have made a mistake, until we have too much in savings to qualify for anything?

I'd talk to the office if I were you, if it was their mistake there may be some way around that. Do you have a copy of you questioning the credits it would help your case.

Don't they make you mad
They make the mistake then expect you to have the money to pay back

My hubby was awarded full attendance allowance , it was on a weekly basis paid in advance at the beginning of each month


He passed away on sat 24th oct .2015 Early the next week I informed the pension people . His company pension , the attendance allowance people etc
Was very traumatic saying the same info over and over but I didn't want money coming in to be sent back

All ok so I thought . Well three months ago I got a letter . Addressed to him as deceased !!!!!! Saying he owed one weeks attendance allowance. As he had been paid 4 weeks pension for oct but had had the audacity !!!!! to die on the 24th October so he owed a refund for the last week .

I paid it even though his probate had been settled


Similarly ,I received £100 fuel allowance even though the amount is £200 per household . I queried it it be told they pay the eligible ones then go back on thedeaths for the current year and uodate the household entitlement

Three months ago I got forms to fill in giving his details and when he passed but stiil not received the £100 due

So they want to claw back but don't want to pay out . They owe me more than I paid them :-(

Unfortunately that is the way the system works and it is not necessarily down to anyone making a mistake, but it is still annoying nevertheless.

Payments are made based on the information they hold on the system at the time the payment was made. So even if you are prompt in informing of a change of circumstances, if a payment has already been made in the intervening period you will inevitably get a claim for it to be paid back.

If you are not prompt in advising a change then it is even worse as you are likely to be hit with an additional civil penalty of £50 as well as a claim for repayment. We had this when my mil went into hospital for two weeks and my wife didn't stop her carers allowance straight away.

After my mum died it took the DWP over six months to work out she had been overpaid just under £1 per day on her pension for the 15 months she was in her care home. They then demanded re-payment within 28 days. As their letters always took at least a week to arrive from the day they were dated this gave us 21 days to pay....!