Any input on this appreciated. Haven’t dealt with social fund repayments before.
Feel free to contact me here if you don’t want to leave a comment.
I spent about an hour on the phone to various parts of the DWP today (more on that exercise soon). I was trying to a) work out why money was being deducted from this young woman’s JSA and b) if the rates of these various deductions could be lowered, seeing as this woman is in an impossible place financially. She has a weekly rent shortfall of a considerable sum each a week, rent arrears because of the shortfall (her Housing Trust said that it might accept a reduced repayment rate on arrears, but that she still has to find the shortfall, of course) and social fund repayments of about £15 a week – a seemingly random amount that was announced by DWP letter about a fortnight ago. These deductions and repayments mean that she will have almost nothing left out of her JSA when all payments are made. That clearly won’t work no matter who thinks it should, so we rang the DWP to try and get the social fund repayment rate lowered. The thinking here was that maybe some of that money could go towards the arrears and help prevent an eviction. The whole thing is a total mess and the paperwork is unreal. No wonder people ignore calls and letters when this shit starts happening. There’s no way to fix it if people can’t pay any of it off, so they ignore it for as long as they can. I’d say that this was the point where people needed the most help sorting things out in a way they could manage, but what would I know. No doubt this is the point where loan sharks come in. I can picture a scenario where people go to loan sharks because the DWP is deducting money from benefits for its own loans – money that people can’t afford to lose each week. Or something. Bloody hell. How does this even work.
Anyway, the woman at the DWP said it would take between two to four weeks to decide whether or not to reduce the repayment terms – with the emphasis on the four weeks end of the scale. That’s an impossible length of time to wait for a decision in this sort of scenario. Two weeks is bad enough. If people are struggling to repay a loan right now and inching ever closer to homelessness because of rent arrears, they’re sure as hell going to be closer to the edge in four weeks’ time. If only outstanding contributions from tax dodgers were pursued with such enthusiasm. That’s the sort of money that would make a difference.
Dear Kate,
I have been searching for information on this matter and have come up with very little. The Social Fund Technical Guidance on Budgeting Loans (is that what the young lady has?) states: “If you are having difficulty making the repayments – If you cannot make the repayments at the rate originally agreed we may be able to help, for example by extending the repayment period to reduce your payments. You should contact your Jobcentre Plus office for advice.”
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-social-fund-technical-guidance/the-social-fund-technical-guidance
Page 24 of the Budgeting Loan Guide, when discussing reviews of Budgeting Loan determinations, says that : “This review process does not apply to…a decision about the rate of loan repayment – this should be dealt with as an administrative complaint”
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/235106/benefits-budgeting-loan-guide.pdf
You may also be interested in the (eventual) response to this very recent Freedom of Information request from a D McDermott:
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/social_fund_department
I am sorry I can’t be more positive. All I can suggest is that you contact the DWP again and explain that this is an emergency, that requiring these repayments will cause undue hardship (with consequent effects upon mental health?) and request that a Reviewing Office suspend the repayments until a decision can be reached.
I don’t know if this will help or not, but it is the best I can do.
Kind regards,
John Spencer-Davis
Cheers John, that’s helpful. I think we will try and call them back. The person we spoke to today was not particularly pleasant – it was a “I’ve sent this to debt recovery and you’ll have to wait for them” type of dialogue. The End. Got a bit shirty at points. Interesting what you say about suspending repayments…there’s another overpayment-repayment going on somewhere else and two people said two different things about it at the DWP to me. One said that it was possible to ask for a repayment suspension and the second person said that wasn’t possible. Depends on who you talk to, it would appear.
You’re very welcome. Good luck. John
This is just so typical of the ruthlessness of the DWP these days. At the back of it all is the idea that they are going to make it just as difficult as they can for people on benefits.
Always with this relentless psychological pressure to get off benefits, and get a job.
Having a hard time on benefits ? Not enough money for food ?
Well then you know what to do.
This is the moral high-ground that they look down from, when they are effectively starving people into submission with their sanctions policy.
This is the reality of Duncan-Smith’s ‘benefits revolution’.
A 60-year old man, sitting in the local library, his only internet access, blindly applying for job after job.
Of course he has no real hope of success, after hundreds of failed applications.
But he must keep making the applications to fulfil the conditions of his Claimant Contract.
He has a set total of proven applications that he must meet each week, or be sanctioned and left absolutely destitute.
There are three, or it might be four, IT terminals at my local jobcentre for general use. None of the training providers will let jobseekers use their computers, unless they are taking one of their courses. So for most jobseekers without the internet at home, the public library is their only option.
The result is that you can hardly get on an internet terminal now at my local library. On busy days it looks like a Bingo Hall, with rows of 50 and 60 year old jobseekers. The library staff have the patience of saints. Constantly having to help these people with job application forms, how to write cover letters, and how to set out a CV. Even technical questions about driving licences and passports.
One of the library staff told me recently that this is now a large part of their job.
Helping jobseekers with everything from making a benefit claim online, to the actual wording of their applications and cover letters.
Many of these jobseekers have been on IT courses with one or other of the various training providers. Somehow they have come out with a certificate, but are unable to perform even basic tasks on a computer.
The DWP are only following the example of the Government.
Rise of the top bracket tax rate? Immediate.
Rise in minimum wage? A few years.
A decision to sanction? Immediate.
Appeal against a sanction? Several months at best.
Jobseeker on work programme finds a job through their own efforts but doesn’t realise they are not obliged to give details to the WP provider? Jobseeker gets nothing, WP provider gets lots of money for doing sod all.
Hi, I’m baffled by the insensitivity of the DWP (although, of course, they are just instituting policy dictated from above.
I have a friend who is being chased for £1900 for an overpayment of tax credits from years ago. Tax credits she would not have had to claim if the CSA had managed to get child support from her ex. I think there should be a system in place whereby anyone claiming benefits who is doing so because they are not receiving the support they should be getting from maintenance payments should have any subsequent debts transferred to the partner who has escaped paying said child maintenance debts. This must be possible, as I was told once by the CSA that they had managed to get a small amount from my ex but that it had been paid directly to the Secretary of State in order to offset part of the amount I had been paid in state benefits!!
Finally, I am being pestered constantly by the DWP by phone and letter for £5.98 which they claim is still owing from a Social Fund payment over 10 years ago. I am simply refusing to pay as I know I paid it all off. Anyone have an idea as to the point at which they will write it off?