Bombshell phone call for MissOops whilst moving house

Thanks chewbacca hopefully the letter will arrive early next week, meanwhile she is looking for the box with all of her paperwork in, not unpacked that pile of boxes yet.
We said to relax and try to forget about it until she gets the letter.
Thanks everyone for all of your very helpful suggestions?

Oops when your daughter receives the letter from the Benefits Agency, it should contain all the information as to how the overpayment occurred: what benefits are involved, time periods and the weekly/monthly amounts. She needs to sit down and carefully check every item - if the BA have made historical errors in her payments she needs to double check that theyve got it right this time. If the errors are the fault of the BA, she can appeal against their requests to have it repaid: if the fault/errors were theirs and not because she had provided false or erroneous information when she claimed, an appeal can be launched.

In any event, the BA are unable to demand that the repayment of any overpayments of benefits are set at a level that would put your daughter in penury: she couldn't, for example, be asked to pay £200 a week if that would leave her unable to pay her basic needs of housing, food, utilities and travel to and from work.

Do nothing now until that letter arrives and, under no circumstances be coerced into agreeing to a repayment plan without taking advice from StepChange or Citizens Advice. Feel free to pm me.

ilovecheese yes she will, let’s hope they also tell her in the letter exactly what she will receive and hopefully we can double check it to make sure it’s right this time.
she is worried sick at the moment.

If this turns out to be genuine, and she has been overpaid, she needs to offer a repayment arrangement based on what she can afford. If she speaks to a real person, setting out a reasonable and level headed case, they will more than likely agree. What she should not do is offer to pay more than she can reasonably afford and then not keep up the payments. They would rather have a regular steady payment plan, set up by standing order, than promises of large amounts that cannot be kept up.
I used to work in a position where I had to make arrangements like these. People can only pay what they can afford to pay and person she speaks to should understand this.

Calistemon my thought exactly, let’s hope the fault is at their end.
Maybe it’s all a mistake and she doesn’t owe anything……….I say hopefully.
We will be asking for proof of the error.

She needs independent advice, as Daisymae said, CAB can help.

If it is true it s their fault and she could offer to repay at the lowest possible rate. They cannot expect a lump sum or a higher repayment.

I think that she will have to take all of her paperwork for the last 2 years to someone, probably the Citizens advice people and either challenge their findings or try to understand how they have got her benefits so wrong.

Well, she has been having telephone/text conversations with them all week trying to talk to somebody about how her benefits might change when she sent copies of the new lease/ rent agreement and it was the same person on the phone yesterday. So sadly not a scam. Just waiting for the letter now.

Oops, I am sure that your daughter would have had a letter from DWP.
Also, as Daisymae says, get her to contact Citizens Advice.

I doubt anyone would phone either. It would have been a letter showing any deficit or overpayment. I'd ignore this if I were you for the time being.

I would contact the Citizens Advice Bureau and ask them to have a look at it. I would think that if there's been an overpayment then surely they would have to agree a repayment plan>

Be careful it is not a scam - I'm not sure that the Benefits Office would phone. They'd be more likely to send a letter I think.