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limitation rules
I have a client who was overpaid carers allowance because he failed to disclose his earnings , he is the corer for his wife and is paid by his wife as a carer via social services direct payments’. The DWP were aware of the situation in 2019 but did not make a decision about the award until 2021, my client argues partly he did inform DWP but no evidence of that , his main complaints is it took DWP 2 years to decide the overpayment, I have told my client that does not help his case, am I correct that there is no limitation period for DWP to make a decision.
I am left a bit confused by the framing of the question.
If your client made the DWP aware of something in 2019 and they did not act on that information until 2021 then that would surely give rise to an argument about the recoverability of any overpayment for the period after it was reported in 2019.
But if you are just saying that this was all a wholly historic situation in any event and benefit was no longer in payment by 2019, so that your client just feels the DWP delayed unduly in making its decision, then that doesn’t lead to anything legally significant as far as the decision which has now been made goes.
Your client could make some freestanding complaint that the delay in decision making was unreasonable and amounted to maladministration such that some compensation offer should be made for the inconvenience, but I suspect that’s as far as it goes.
Sorry Elliot, yes bad framing
Client says he informed DWP in Jan 2019 of his income, nothing happened, in April 2019 he chased up the DWP and to ask what was happening. However he had been getting paid for a long time before January 2019 [ say from Jan 2018 ]
A decision was made that he had been overpaid from Jan 2018 to April 2019, the date it is accepted he informed the DWP, the period from Jan 2019 is part of the appeal but, as I said cl has no evidence he informed DWP in Jan 2019 and they say he did not. That bit of the appeal is no big issue.
What my client is complaining of and thinks it supports his argument to avoid paying back any money is that after the DWP became aware of the situation in April 2019 at which time he stopped getting carers allowance and the situation was regularized, it to the DWP to end of 2021 to send him out an overpayment letter, its the time it took them to inform him of the overpayment that the client is complaining about. The DWP are not asking for any money from the date they became aware in April 2019
Yes, if he is just saying that the DWP ought to have made the decision sooner, its hard to see that that would have any relevance at all to his appeal.
There is no limitation in my experience. DWP even recovering tax credit debts from 10 years ago
Thank you both, as I suspected, in fact DWP did not even go back all the way to when he starred work so I have advised him that the Tribunal could look at that period which the DWP for some reason have missed/ignored and he could have an even bigger overpayment after his appeal than now. I think he needs to accept the situation and withdraw his appeal
There is no limitation in my experience. DWP even recovering tax credit debts from 10 years ago
A few years ago I saw the DWP recovering a Supplementary Benefit overpayment from someone’s JSA award (their first benefit claim in many many years) that had arisen sometime back in the early 80s. Client didn’t dispute they owed it just that it was from so long ago surely it was too late to recover it! Was a bit odd having to deal with an issue that originated from before I was born…
There is no limitation in my experience. DWP even recovering tax credit debts from 10 years ago
A few years ago I saw the DWP recovering a Supplementary Benefit overpayment from someone’s JSA award (their first benefit claim in many many years) that had arisen sometime back in the early 80s. Client didn’t dispute they owed it just that it was from so long ago surely it was too late to recover it! Was a bit odd having to deal with an issue that originated from before I was born…
I’ve had many of those having run a Supplementary Benefit take-up campaign to about 1999 :)
I recall that the furthest went all the way back to the start of SB in 1966. Gained about £60k but lost £35k.
As regards this case I think the phrase “no evidence” is incorrect. There is always recall and verbal and evidence. The question is more pertinently framed around credibility. Does the little the claimant has appear credible? That in turn has to be framed around the idea that if DWP are seeking to recover then the onus falls on them to make the case as the party who superseded. When you pin down the DWPs own sketchy evidence of a failure to disclose it often comes down to “well we can’t find anything and therefore it didn’t happen” versus “I’ve got nothing in writing”. A credible appellant can often win that at appeal.
It immediately strikes me re: January 2019… well, why that particular date. Why not earlier and why not later? Provide a credible explanation about why it was at that specific moment in time and you’re in business.