“I was shocked because I was saving for my 60th birthday and I was hoping to do something for it, but I won’t be able to do that now,” said Ms Buckley.”
Doesn’t sound like she will be left destitute.
regprenticer on
Quote of the day ” I did start wondering why people were saying they were struggling on universal credit, because I wasn’t – I even went on a nice holiday to Barbados for 14 days.”
J8YDG9RTT8N2TG74YS7A on
> before the Debt Management Office, told her the debt would be waived.
> Ms Buckley said she was even paid £350 in compensation.
That is a more relevant part of the article.
If they’ve told her the debt has been waived and even given her £350 compensation, why is she being asked to pay it back now?
IXMCMXCII on
> Ms Buckley said she was even paid £350 in compensation.
> But last month, she received a letter which said she would have to pay back the entire £5,086, even though she “did not contribute to the overpayment”.
> “I was shocked because I was saving for my 60th birthday and I was hoping to do something for it, but I won’t be able to do that now,” said Ms Buckley.
> “It has caused me significant hardship and I am not happy about it but I will just have to pay it back, I suppose – I’ve said I will pay it back at £1 per month.”
Respectfully Ms Buckley, that’s going to take you 423 years and 10 months. And that’s without any interest they may or may not add on!
BigBeanMarketing on
> “Even if it’s an overpayment and you haven’t defrauded the DWP, you have to pay it back because it’s the law. They can waive it but it’s at their discretion.”
Same with any overpayment really, from work or Government.
> “I’ve said I will pay it back at £1 per month.”
Sounds like she’s basically found a way to never repay it anyway.
00DEADBEEF on
If it’s not her mistake, and she didn’t claim it fraudulently, just fucking write it off and educate whoever is responsible. If overpayments get written off, then it incentivises the system to fix whatever is causing overpayments to even be possible. The users of the system shouldn’t be punished for system errors.
rolanddeschain316 on
Glad she had a nice holiday. I’ll take a personal cheque for my contribution.
FatBloke4 on
>Yvonne Buckley, from Ipswich, was overpaid by more than £5,000 in universal credit between November 2021 and August 2023 due to “incorrect payment of housing costs”.
Was there not a section on the claim form she completed, to the effect of “I have checked the figures I am submitting are correct and understand that I could be prosecuted if not”? As I understand it, in any UC or similar application/submission, the applicant is supposed to check that the numbers are correct/accurate. I suspect she may have made a mistake and then decided to keep quiet about it.
Dry_Sandwich_860 on
Most British people are horrible at maths and the benefits system is complicated. I certainly believe she had no idea what was going on. Maybe she did suspect something was up, but it’s impossible to prove and she has no money to pay it back.
Two of my cousins work at DWP and one of them is in a pretty senior position. My aunt works at Citizens’ Advice now that she’s retired and frequently asks them how to sort out mistakes that people have brought to her. The system is insanely complicated and it’s just not reasonable to expect the average claimant to identify and sort out problems.
There shouldn’t be problems in this day and age and when there are, DWP should be liable. From this case and what I’ve heard my relatives say, it sounds like another Post Office Horizon situation, where someone has designed a shoddy system.
mumwifealcoholic on
Too many haven’t read the article and have made assumptions due to either racism or general being a piece of shit person with no empathy.
Ok-Inflation4310 on
I can sort of understand why she would be confused. For every tale of people struggling there’s an anecdote about ‘my neighbour has never worked and has a brand new car’ Even I don’t know which is right or if both sort of are.
YaGanache1248 on
If you’ve asked if you’re receiving the correct amount because it seems to much, and they continue to overpay, I don’t think they should be able to claim it back.
If someone’s lied, then obviously that should be paid back.
But people shouldn’t be punished by DWP’s incompetence
NihilismIsSparkles on
Damn if I even earned a £10 back when I was on benefits, my Universal credit was cancelled. Why couldn’t I have had this error?
AncientCivilServant on
Blame the politicians who propose such complex rules that make it difficult for even experienced staff to correctly understand the roles so what chance does the claimant have ?
yourlocallidl on
Someone in my family had to repay because some incompetent civil servant or whoever couldn’t do their job properly, crappy system altogether.
Cynical_Classicist on
The system continues to squeeze people who can’t hit back, like in Not the 9 O’clock news.
DrFrozenToastie on
DWP has a lot to answer for here, competency when handing out thousands of pounds should be a given.
Not only did they mess up her payments, they then messed up further assuring her she didn’t have to pay it back when she would. If the DWP as the responsible party can’t get it right it a bit rich to pass blame to her for not having wads of cash to repay them.
17 Comments
“I was shocked because I was saving for my 60th birthday and I was hoping to do something for it, but I won’t be able to do that now,” said Ms Buckley.”
Doesn’t sound like she will be left destitute.
Quote of the day ” I did start wondering why people were saying they were struggling on universal credit, because I wasn’t – I even went on a nice holiday to Barbados for 14 days.”
> before the Debt Management Office, told her the debt would be waived.
> Ms Buckley said she was even paid £350 in compensation.
That is a more relevant part of the article.
If they’ve told her the debt has been waived and even given her £350 compensation, why is she being asked to pay it back now?
> Ms Buckley said she was even paid £350 in compensation.
> But last month, she received a letter which said she would have to pay back the entire £5,086, even though she “did not contribute to the overpayment”.
> “I was shocked because I was saving for my 60th birthday and I was hoping to do something for it, but I won’t be able to do that now,” said Ms Buckley.
> “It has caused me significant hardship and I am not happy about it but I will just have to pay it back, I suppose – I’ve said I will pay it back at £1 per month.”
Respectfully Ms Buckley, that’s going to take you 423 years and 10 months. And that’s without any interest they may or may not add on!
> “Even if it’s an overpayment and you haven’t defrauded the DWP, you have to pay it back because it’s the law. They can waive it but it’s at their discretion.”
Same with any overpayment really, from work or Government.
> “I’ve said I will pay it back at £1 per month.”
Sounds like she’s basically found a way to never repay it anyway.
If it’s not her mistake, and she didn’t claim it fraudulently, just fucking write it off and educate whoever is responsible. If overpayments get written off, then it incentivises the system to fix whatever is causing overpayments to even be possible. The users of the system shouldn’t be punished for system errors.
Glad she had a nice holiday. I’ll take a personal cheque for my contribution.
>Yvonne Buckley, from Ipswich, was overpaid by more than £5,000 in universal credit between November 2021 and August 2023 due to “incorrect payment of housing costs”.
Was there not a section on the claim form she completed, to the effect of “I have checked the figures I am submitting are correct and understand that I could be prosecuted if not”? As I understand it, in any UC or similar application/submission, the applicant is supposed to check that the numbers are correct/accurate. I suspect she may have made a mistake and then decided to keep quiet about it.
Most British people are horrible at maths and the benefits system is complicated. I certainly believe she had no idea what was going on. Maybe she did suspect something was up, but it’s impossible to prove and she has no money to pay it back.
Two of my cousins work at DWP and one of them is in a pretty senior position. My aunt works at Citizens’ Advice now that she’s retired and frequently asks them how to sort out mistakes that people have brought to her. The system is insanely complicated and it’s just not reasonable to expect the average claimant to identify and sort out problems.
There shouldn’t be problems in this day and age and when there are, DWP should be liable. From this case and what I’ve heard my relatives say, it sounds like another Post Office Horizon situation, where someone has designed a shoddy system.
Too many haven’t read the article and have made assumptions due to either racism or general being a piece of shit person with no empathy.
I can sort of understand why she would be confused. For every tale of people struggling there’s an anecdote about ‘my neighbour has never worked and has a brand new car’ Even I don’t know which is right or if both sort of are.
If you’ve asked if you’re receiving the correct amount because it seems to much, and they continue to overpay, I don’t think they should be able to claim it back.
If someone’s lied, then obviously that should be paid back.
But people shouldn’t be punished by DWP’s incompetence
Damn if I even earned a £10 back when I was on benefits, my Universal credit was cancelled. Why couldn’t I have had this error?
Blame the politicians who propose such complex rules that make it difficult for even experienced staff to correctly understand the roles so what chance does the claimant have ?
Someone in my family had to repay because some incompetent civil servant or whoever couldn’t do their job properly, crappy system altogether.
The system continues to squeeze people who can’t hit back, like in Not the 9 O’clock news.
DWP has a lot to answer for here, competency when handing out thousands of pounds should be a given.
Not only did they mess up her payments, they then messed up further assuring her she didn’t have to pay it back when she would. If the DWP as the responsible party can’t get it right it a bit rich to pass blame to her for not having wads of cash to repay them.