Income Support

[Caron]

I have only been caring full time since January. I applied for carers allowance and Income support, gave them all the information they requested and hid nothing. Got awarded both.
At the end of last week I received a letter to say that they are cutting my income support, I rang today to find out why. They claim I never told them I was claiming Carer's allowance, its on my application!!! They have cut my money by £21.50 a week.
I know this is pointless but I just really needed to have a moan

[Guest]

Hi there I also had this kind of problem with these people. They dont't seem to read the form correctly. Carers allowance comes off Income Support anyway sos either way you should have been receiving the smae amount . If it wasn;t taken in to account your Income Suport would have ben more than if they had read the form correctly. To stop this problem I usually take a copy of any form I fill in or take a copy of any letters I send. If they turn round and say that It wasn't on the application you have the proof that it was. Take Care Alison

[charles47]

They can't demand that you pay any overpayment back if it's their mistake, as in this case: how were you to know they'd got it wrong?

[smiler]

I found this
Duplication of payment

This type of overpayment only occurs in relation to income support and income based job seekers allowance. This occurs when you receive arrears of benefit which affects your entitlement to income support or income based job seekers allowance.

If you receive arrears of other social security benefits; arrears of child support maintenance or benefits paid by other European member states you must repay the income support or income based job seekers allowance which you would not have received if the other income had been paid on time. This is to prevent a duplication of payments.

If you do receive an overpayment of benefit for this reason, you can be made to pay back the overpayment. There is no right of appeal against the fact that this is recoverable but you could appeal against the amounts of the alleged duplication of payment. Recovery in these circumstances is discretionary so you could ask that the money is not recovered. This is explained in more detail later.

from here

[Caron]

Thanks everyone, they are not actually asking me for any money back, they are just cutting what I get every week. Can't believe what they expect us to live on.
I gave up a managers job but obviously my Mum has to come first. Finding it really hard to adjust to this very low income.

[charles47]

Smiler, although you are correct that where a duplication has occurred and it's your fault they can make you repay, where it is their error and you have done everything correctly, they cannot. It is down to this: did you misrepresent the facts (knowingly or otherwise)? If not, they have no recourse.

The current Decision Makers' Guide (the code of practice from which the DWP's workers get their instructions) makes it clear that an overpayment is only recoverable where there has been misrepresentation - except in three specific circumstances not relevant here.

If you have time, the guide is well worth a read and following successful attempts by a welfare rights organisation to get these codes of practice published, they are available on the internet at:http://www.dwp.gov.uk/publications/dwp/dmg/

Sometimes the rules are vague and open to interpretation, which is where most of the fun starts. In this case, though, happily, it's clear cut.