Any feedback on this is welcome.
(You can contact me here if you don’t want to leave a comment):
As readers of this site will know, I’ve spoken from time to time with people who have money deducted each week from their benefits. The money is deducted for social fund loan repayments and a supposed overpayment in one case (the person there says that the DWP’s overpayment claim is wrong and wants to challenge it). This repayment money is taken each week from people’s jobseekers’ allowance. Most people seem to be getting about £73 a week in JSA.
I want to know if there are limits to the amount of money that the DWP can take out of a benefit. I presume there are, but haven’t been able to get the DWP to confirm that, or to tell me how limits are decided, or to tell me much at all about the way that this system works. If I’m honest, I wonder why people are made to repay these loans at all, given that most people I meet can’t afford to. They take out loans because they haven’t got money. That situation hardly changes when they’ve got a loan to pay back. I suppose this “system” is about making sure that people who are unemployed a) get in debt and stay in debt and b) are regularly reminded that there’s no such thing as Something for Nothing, for them, at least. The amounts deducted from benefits are substantial in some cases. You can see here that this person was asked to repay nearly £20 a week at one point. At other times, the repayment was around £15.
Those amounts are a big chunk out of £73, to say the least. The amounts also seem to be completely random. Letters about repayment amounts pour through people’s doors. One letter will say one figure and another letter will say another figure and another letter will say another figure, and nobody knows what is going on and where the numbers will come from, or when. All people know is that they don’t have much to live on at all when these amounts are taken from their JSA.
This person has just been sent another letter. The DWP wants to raise the repayment totals again:
We called the DWP a couple of months ago and got the repayment figure knocked down to about £9 a week. I thought that the £9 repayment rate was supposed to stand for a while, but apparently not.
Anyway. How does this deducting repayments from benefits work? How little are people expected to live on? How much money is the DWP allowed to take out of people’s benefits? Exactly how low are these already-tiny incomes allowed to fall? I’ve met a number of people over the last few years who’ve said that they don’t know how much money they’ll get from one week to the next. They seem very confused about totals. Last week, I asked the DWP to tell me how the system worked. “It’s complicated,” the DWP told me. The department said it would get back to me with more – presumably less complicated – information about deductions. It did not (I’ve kept a fairly close eye on my spam folders, too). That was last Tuesday.
I’ve been thinking about this ever since – and this general issue of taking money from people who haven’t got any, even if they supposedly “owe” it. Most people I talk with in these situations have other financial problems that are threatening to sink them. That’s just what things are like in these situations. People have fines to pay, rent arrears, outrageously expensive energy bills to meet, loans to pay because they borrowed money to cover other loans – all the debts that stack up when people don’t have £50 here and £60 there to throw at money problems. Then there’s this as well, which confused me further: I note that the CAB site says people who receive Universal Credit and get hardship payments if they’re sanctioned are likely to have to repay that all-important stopgap money when their benefit is restarted. I rang the DWP’s loans lines (on a charged-for number) this morning to ask more about this (I finally got through after holding twice for about 15 minutes each time). The guy I spoke to there seemed to say that people didn’t have to repay hardship payments that they received during a sanction. Like I say, I’m not sure what the story is on this one. If you can shed any light, please do.
Anyway. I spent a lot of my time wondering about the point of all of this: taking money from people who don’t have any. I suppose it’s about hammering in our era’s all-important lesson: If You’re Skint, We Own You and No Exceptions, etc. Interesting, really. I’m hanging out for the day when government goes after tax dodgers with the same zeal that it chases people who don’t have money or work.
They asked for the last weeks pension money back after my wife’s death,£46-00.
even though I had the whole cost of her Funeral.
You can ask for the money to be reduced I paying for a over payment at £3 a week just now but they do ask for all you out goings
I’m on universal credit and this month got a payment of £64. I’m paying back two advanced payments of £10 and £12.50, but also got hit with a deduction of £106 for a speeding fine. Last month I was deducted £15 for the fine, which I thought was acceptable and was to be the same every month until paid, until I saw I had only received £64. I rang the DWP to be told there’s nothing that can be done about it and there are no advanced payments available to me, but here’s a number for a local food bank. I am so angry that I was not given any warning that my next payment was going to be so low. No one can budget for £64 a month, but a little forewarning may of helped, instead of waking up on pay day to find you haven’t got enough money to eat, let alone pay bills. The treatment from the staff at DWP was also disgusting. They offered no help (apart from the food bank number), where cold and had no sympathy for my situation as they gave me automated responses and call card answers.
Sorry! This wasn’t meant to be a reply to your comment.
Unfortunately just like everything else with the DWP, the repayment system is deliberately vague. You can negotiate the repayment amount. But again, most people don’t realize this, and the DWP are not about to tell them. The less able claimant is particularly vulnerable here. People for whom it is difficult to negotiate a sensible level of repayment, and who often have no access to advice or support.
The act of leaving someone with vitually no money to live on, is also an effective psychological technique for the Jobcentre. It underlines how difficult things are going to be if you stay on benefits, and makes even poorly-paid insecure work a more attractive option.
It’s a good point. A number of people I attend with and have attend with have some trouble reading and writing. You also have to spend god knows what on phone calls – the one I rang today was charged-for so there’s all of that going on too. Not to mention the fact that the waiting times for an answer were not too encouraging – about half an hour all told it took to get hold of someone today who could answer (kind of) my question. It’d do your head in.
So basically if you balling to pay it back the minimum payment arrangement they can make with you is 5% of your weekly income.
I have had a major disagreement with united utilities firstly that they are charging me on the old rateable value of the house. Which is now 4 flats.
But all the hassle of trying trying to organize through the landlord that even thoug I gave them the telephone number it became my responsibility to sort out.
Take me to court and stop referring me to credit agencies I screamed.
2 years later they are still charging me close to £600 for my water bill and also my areas for what is almost two years and guess what they don’t need to go to court they just ring up the DSS and they take £15 a week off you and there is no way I can stop it!
this bedroom tax is a killer too £30.00 every two weeks that we could be spending on other things like food heating
Hi a solicitor friend told meveryone they are only allowed to take 17.5% total per month
Hope this helps
Doesn’t matter want the DWP or any other institutions wants the law say 17.5%
the law says they can take up to %40 with no negotiation possible they are taking £108 a month of my UC, the dwp cant and wont reduce it and the courts cant or wont reduce it.
Your right it’s same here.abd they are trawling back years and finding other debts I am left 190.00 a month .after the 40% and bedroom tax.
They r taking 272 a month and won’t reduce it I am a single mum with two young kids
I get 62 pound a fortnight taken from my income support
Hi thank you for that info but I had a court fine taken off in two payments(£200) all because I never received any letters about it and that it would take to long to have it changes by the court by the time the second payment was due, at lease that is cleared.
Notices of any payment from benefits should be toldl before any payment are made and not a few days before payment due. This way you have the right to make a adjustments to payments with company not benefits. You are better off dealing with companies then Universal credit.
Kate don’t know if these FoI responses are any use to you;
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/payments_taken_from_benefits#incoming-379923
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/available_benefits#incoming-358717
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/175027/response/429952/attach/html/3/WDTK%20Conner%204202.pdf.html
Kind regards
G Millward
Thanks that’s interesting. The 60% of a benefit as a basic rate is an interesting figure. I know that’s where hardship payments sit during a sanction.
The 10p is also an interesting figure. Can’t imagine what 10p is good for.
This Government that talks hypocritically about lack of trade union ‘transparency’ is planning to scrap freedom of information and make folk pay for answers.
38Degrees survey: Have your say on Freedom of Information.
I am currently on £147 a fortnight. I got a letter a couple months back to say water will be taking £20 a week. I called them to ask for it to be cancelled and she said it would be in 6 weeks time. 6 weeks later I call back and and someone else says it will be cancelled soon, call dwp. So I waited another week of payments still coming out. Just to be passed on to someone that says to me ‘I don’t know who told you it could be cancelled but it cant’ so what the hell were the 3 workers I spoke to on about?!?!. So a couple months later a get a letter to say council tax are taking £3.70 a week. I was already paying more than that so that’s their stupid loss. Then the next day another letter to say we want to start taking social fund repayments at £20 a week (which I agreed to at the time) but at the time there wasn’t other people taking money) so now in total this week I get £80 that’s £67 off normal pay and in 2 weeks time up until SEPTEMBER that will be taking over half and leaving me with £70. I have 2 children one being a 1 year old. But again it cant be cancelled. They should have ASKED me to decide how much I can afford. I really don’t know what I will do now.
What I’ve never understood is that on initial letters from DWP about the amount of benefit you get it states it’s “the amount the law says you need to live on”. So surely taking some of it away is breaking the law. I’ve recently had my ESA stopped after a medical and after over 10 weeks of no money at all (I couldn’t sign on as I have mental health problems, despite what the DWP say, and cannot leave the house) I was reinstated on £73.10 a week. Previously I was getting about £100, of which £40 had to go to pay the shortfall in rent (Local Housing Allowance is another nightmare. In my area you are given maximum of £485 a month, I’ve never seen anywhere under £600. Where do they get their figures?). Luckily I was awarded Discretionary Housing Payments to cover this shortfall, but this is only a temporary payment. I’ve now been told they’re taking £3.70 a week out for a Council Tax debt from 2006 that I’ve always contested. It may not seem much but my benefit is now down to £69 a week, about £274 a month. I have to pay a regular £15 a month Council Tax plus electricity, gas and water and get left with very little for food and that £3.70, small as it is, would allow me to eat every day. I will never be able to get a job so it seems this is how my life will always be. I’m not sure any more if it’s worth going on. The future looks pointless, as it must do to so many others.
Thanks for this. The DHPs are useful but as you say, they’re only a stopgap measure and not everyone gets one either.
Thanks for this one, Sarah.
It has always struck me from those DWP statements about how much the claimant needs to live on and how much they are entitled to is how out of touch ‘the law’ is.
Dude Swheatie of Kwug
Sarah, I really feel for you. I thought you might be interested in this, if you can type – it’s a transcription job. It’s a real job, take a look at the site, it works out to around £27 per shift transcribing audio. I’m partway through the application process just now, and it’s self employed – you’d need to deal with your own tax/insurance, etc. But it might be better than signing on forever if you have a decent typing speed – they ask for at least 65 wpm. https://takenotetyping.com/
I hope you see this, and that it might be helpful for you.
Much luck
Lou
ive just come off the phone from income suport as i get carers alouance and income suport carers alouance i get 62.00 a week 20.oo pounds a week stopped for budgetting loan and i get 32.00 a fortnight income suport ov whitch 12.00 is stopped out ov this i have to get food electric gas water food councilo tax tv licence its impossible to do i look after my disasbled partner although i am now disabled and waiting on the roller coaster ov will i get pip or not ive had the interview and then get told you will here in 12 weeks if you get it or not i sufer with anxiety attacks pannick attacks depression i have 4 discs crumbling in my lower back and 4 in my neck and i am housebound because ov my problems i cant see am end to never haveing a penny to pay bills and live at same time i cant put heating on so my medical problems are made worse as its allways freezing i phoned up income suport today to ask how much they could stop as allready got sanctions on my carers alouance and i was told they could leave me with a 1.00 income suport its a joke it really isd the rich get richer the poor get poorer
why the hell did u agree for them to take £20 a week for budgeting loan, u can negotiate and re negotiate your repayments u know!
The only suggestion is getting your housing officer, care workers and your doctors to support you and call the dwp on your behalf or send a letter. They were taking £140 a month from a friend and it took 3 months and countless calls of his support workers and now it is set at the minimum.
Just keep at it and i hope u can resolve this but the dwp dont do things speedily.
It says on all ESA etc letters ‘The Minimum amount you can live on’ or words to that effect and then they take Bedroom Tax, Here in Worthing £5 council tax PW and of course any overpayment . If its the Minimum amount how can it be less, especially on Bedroom and Council Tax deductions that automaticly bring you below the minimum you can live on.
Hi Kate
There is a specific answer to your question and that is 40% of the standard allowance in Universal Credit.
In weekly terms the £73.10 JSA can be reduced to 60% of that or £43.86 per week.
UC also has a priority or pecking order so for example rent arrears can be 10% or 20% and note well the UT IT system defaults to 20% so the claimant has to call and say that is too much and argue for just the 10% deductions. Note too the standard amount a court award for rent arrears is just 5% or £3.75 per week.
Any advance on UC – and with 42 days minimum who doesn’t need one! – is also a priority too.
Up to £108.?? can be taken off for fines or circa £25 per week – and they all are inter-related
So if your advance payment finishes as a deductions and £10 per week was being deducted for court fines, then the court fines deduction can go up to £25 pw or £108 pcm.
Cheers Joe that’s helpful. The court fines part is a big issue. A lot of people I’m dealing with have those fines as an issue and the fines and court costs are often really problematic. There’s no way people are going to pay them off so the deductions just go on and on. The arrears don’t change and the rent shortfalls don’t change. If anything, shortfalls are likely to increase.
a link to this critical topic that has been bothering me is the push to get everyone doing all necessary demands via the internet – which means paying phone and broadband service. no point saying go to the library, hundreds have been shut down and then there is transporation and charges to use the internet – on top of physical, mental and learning problems. i have recently, since the election in which i did vote, received a form from the local authority’s electoral registration officer, asking for information and threatening £1000 fine if i do not comply! that threat is put in a nice little blue box, presumably to use the ‘four corners rule’ to get your signature giving them permission to do such a thing to you. it then threatens that if anything is wrong, you will be punished with an unlimited fine and/or up to 6 months in jail – meaning anyone with physical, mental and learning difficulties will be at risk of an unintentional mistake and such a draconian result – also in a nice little blue box of its own. and after all that, if you can only respond by hand and return post envelope, you will not necessarily be registered to vote, as they want that done online. how many people will be disenfranchised as a result of that? you will remain on the ‘open register’, but not the electoral register. additionally, i have been using the local post office to have my ‘benefits’ paid into, and from which my rent and council tax may be paid. but notice that all new reforms, including UC, are pushing people to have a bank account in a corrupt system we have the right to reject, and which can and has resulted in causing many people problems on a somewhat regular basis, and they aren’t dealing with everything else those with little income must do. even renewing and paying a blue badge must be done online in my local authority, so i no longer have one. imagine if a proper cumulative affect enquiry was actually carried out, which is meant to be carried out before inficting such a range of changes on people, particularly those with the least, and what it would reveal? it seems obvious to me that trying to keep us in a position that is untenable must be against the law regarding the meagre amount a vulnerable person must have to live on. and whether or not one is worthy of being part of this society.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/minimum-amount-the-law-defines-a-person-needs-to-live-on
https://www.gov.uk/bills-benefits
worthy of a read
Your only sanctioned if you don’t attend an appointment which is pre arranged, cannot blame the system for that, as for not getting enough money on benefits I don’t know any who gets less per year than I do in full time work. Cutts are made for a reason and i too have suffered at work due to this with the job evaluations the government set and lost thousands per year so not just benefits being cutt. Wish I could get tax payers money for free and lounge around all day.
You surely don’t believe that do you?
I used to work in a Jobcentre and have often advised people on how to go about appealing sanctions.
I have known people to be sanctioned for making mistakes using the pitifully inadequate Universal Jobmatch website owing incidentally to a fault they now tell people about in a course they run for new claimants, being held up in traffic following an accident even though another advisor from the jobcentre was late to work on the very same bus, not meeting their required number of jobseeking actions because they applied for the same job on two consecutive fortnightly cycles and bizarrely when you consider that one NOT applying for the same job twice in a month because the job was still available & they should have “given it another try”.
My own son claimed for a short time a couple of years ago, he was sanctioned for failing to attend an appointment at 3.00pm because his advisor changed the time to 9.15am two days before he was due, the second class letter telling him of the change arrived shortly after 11.00.am on the day of the appointment.
Most recently a friend of mine was sanctioned when he took a part time job and his advisor refused to work his signing time around the hours the employer wanted him to work because he was unable to supply printed evidence of the hours he was working a week in advance, of course if he had not gone to work and been let go as a consequence he would have been sanctioned for that so he was in a no win situation.
All in all it would seem missing appointments is the least of your worries when at the tender mercies of Jobcentre manager hungry for staff to hit their monthly “Expectations” those expectations would be targets to anyone in any other job but we all know the DWP don’t have targets don’t we?
What a twat
The answer to the question is dependant upon two things, is the overpayment a mistake by the DWP or is it classed as fraud? If it is a mistake then they cannot take too much from you, simply because if you can prove that it is not your error then you can technically have the debt wiped off. You should never say that the debt is yours because then you are dropping yourself in it. If the matter is relating to fraud then the maximum that they can now take in 2016 is £29.60 a week as of Jan 1st 2016, so if you are reading this in 100 years time, then things might have changed. The DWP sent out lovely letters in December 2015 just before Christmas to let people know of this which was inhumane to say the least. The debt recovery team are getting away with far too much and are actually committing benefit fraud themselves. I say this due to the fact that I have a current over payment but I have just been awarded over £2,500 in arrears because I was awaiting a medical which took over a year to happen. The DWP recovery team have told me that they are taking the money from me to go towards the back payment that they say I owe. I am now going to fight this, because I found this at the weekend and I am not sure if it is still current ruling.
Exceptions
5.48 Do not recover from arrears when they are for;
a) the full weekly benefit entitlement for the start of a claim, where the award is delayed for administrative purposes (e.g. benefit claimed, award delayed pending verification of details, award made, arrears paid up to date usually for the first few weeks of the award);
However if I had of had my medical within the time limit that they say which is usually 13 weeks, then I would not have had any back payment, I would have been on the normal payment rate, and they could have taken the maximum allowed, which I think was about £18 a week. In 2016 because I have had this arrears payment back, they are saying that they can take the lot, but as I have posted from above this falls down to administration delays and not my fault, which is why I am going to fight, even if I have to take them to court, but I will fight and I will win and this will open the flood gates to people who have just accepted that they can do this.
I used to work for CAB. There used to be information in the CPAG Benefit Guide and I seem to recall a figure of 5% but that was some years ago. I challenged one client’s repayments on the basis of the figures given in the CPAG book. Hope that helps.
People who have to pay the bedroom tax and council now have will be in destitution.
Ie £20 pw bedroom tax and £5 pw council tax, that is £48 pw week and they say people do this for life style choice out of £73.10 pw, then sanctions if they miss the dot on their back side.
the dwp are taking 1third of my oap of 147pounds weekly for benifit fraud which i was so convicted of in2010 and was sent to prison for 6months strangeways manchester. the dwp didnt have a good case against me and offered me deal of no prison and didnt have to pay any back i was supposed to them .on the day of sentacing the yfound me guilty and sent me to prison for 6 months. the dwp stithed me up renaiging of what they said, i appealed and when it came i was getting before the date they gave me. i would not trust any one from dwp or legal sythem in this country ever again ps, i was in their guidlines ,the judge only lived 4 weeks after that. maybe god having his revenge on him?
DWP at it again. I received tax credits overpayment in 2015 they discovered the error and made arrangements for me to pay back £6pm. Suddenly last November I got informed they’d transferred the debt to DWP who were in the process of assessing me for lcw/lcwra element of UC. They finally put me in the LCW group on march 24th resulting in them owing me £504 they took the lot to cover my debt leaving me unable to pay debts accrued during the assessment period.
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I absolutely know how you all are feeling! For the last 6years I’ve been paying £34.00 every ,£19.00. £20.00 , £7.50 £6.60 which totals to 90 every 2 weeks out my benefit! My social should of been 73.00 a week so 146.00 every 2 weeks, so out of that146 I received after benefit stops I got £60 pound a fortnight to live on! I only have electric in my home and in debt with them so to HV electric on my metre I paid 40.00 for 2 weeks! Council tax demanding money I hadn’t got as the 20 pound !EFT went on food! Which for 2 weeks wasn’t enough food! I became very ill as they wouldn’t change my rate as of over payment law state I had to pay 34 every 2 wk! I got into so much debt then I claimed ESA as I was so ill, and while doing that they stopped my benefit until I had the medical! So 4 months with out money! They signed me off but would not give me all the back payment because I owed them money! 60 to nothing then all the debt I got in the back payment would of helped. We are now in 2017 and they are still stopping me 34 pound for over payment and 18 every 2 weeks for budget loan and crisis loan! But 18 every 2 weeks for 6 years total is nearly 2000 pound they just keep saying I owe money still is about 6000 thousand wells I’ve had enough now I don’t paid them more than I should of but every time I ring they say you owe this from this year and I say I remember paying that but I can’t find the paperwork! Stuff paperwork I’m going to get someone to investigate! Can anyone offer advice and help to how to deal with this please regards Ann Marie
Myself and my husband are on income support.
The rate for both of us is supposed to be £114 a week. We receive £112 a FORTNIGHT. I don’t know why so far the dwp have refused to properly explain themselves. All I get are letters stating how much is going to be deducted every week and then it says this is broken down on the next page but the next page is the general about how to appeal a decision (but apparently I can’t appeal the amount).
I know I have social fund to repay and an unknown amount from overpayment from 2008 but surely they cannot take this much?
We struggle every week. My food bill alone is £50 a week.
We do get child tax credits for our daughter. We get no child benefit and the carers allowance I receive for my daughter is half. Again these deductions are apparently to cover the overpayment.
So I should be getting
£114 income support
£20 child benefit
£62 carers allowance
And £110 child tax credits
Total of £306
But I actually get £196 a week.
May sound alot but when you take of shopping inc food and cleaning products (£60), top up rent (£35) gas and electric and water (£32 in the summer), tv licence (£7), bus pass to take my daughter to her hospital appointments (£13) and priority debts (£50) there is nothing left for emergencies let alone clothes, or birthday and Christmas presents for my daughter.
Don’t know what to do any more. My letter says our payments aren’t going to increase until January 2019 but by then we will be living in a bedsit with nothing
I’m on esa after deductions it’s £93 per fortnight, after I paid my rent I’m left with £8!! I’ve even sat with no electricity at times, DWP do not care about anyone FACT
You need to write about Universal credit because there take 40% to payback any outstanding amount.I have been left with a chooses, pay regular bills or food. I have a court fine ( which I didn’t know about until it turn up as a payment) for £200. They took £16 last month which was fine but this month £108 and next month £76
( round figure up)
I only get £245 and I pay out £180 in bills, this also includes debt with the council I arrangement the payment on rent and council tax. The thing is the rent arrears was cause by universal credit taking payments.
I always thought they should have your permission to take any money off but that don’t apply, any companies can ask them to take payment for arrears.
I still be-leave that you have the right not to pay though you benefits but why don’t asks if the payments are ok or not. (You are better off going to the companies and making a deal with them.)
If you have to tell them of any changes so why not them to you. Just because its the Government department there got rules or are there just ignoring. I whats to control my own finances but I can effort the bus fare to job center. If I pay my council and phone bill and gas& electric (60+35+40= 135) I left with – 17 for month. What am I to do ??
Social security administration act 122 states no money is allowed to be taken out of your benifits without your consent
They the DWP took all my 3.300 back pay the courts gave me ,behind my back, I had a over payment 6 years ago they said for me to pay 6 pound a week, I was going to pay for a buggy has I cant get out my house over a year now my back has gone in 3 disks I was so happy I won my pip, today I got told they took all my money grrr I,am so so upset I cant even get to a shop I cant walk . What evil people. when they wrote to me 6 years ago saying sorry we gave you money a over payment. now this my money for my buggy is all gone 3.300
Pingback: Universal Credit advance payments fix nothing. They’re just loans – and ANOTHER debt for people who have no money | Kate Belgrave
I am repaying one back at 48.80 every week, for this I won’t even seen any income support till loan is repaid. No idea why it is so high
just got a letter saying I owe them and they are going to take £115.36 from my pension every fortnight this is 50% of my income it looks like a cold miserable winter for the next few years
Well I had to find self employment work and only earning 15 pound every two weeks because the dwp have told me they wont help me with further funding so i can take on more work, and they are now taking 6 pound out of my benefit because i earn the 15 pound every two weeks this is wrong and i have been told after i mentioned that theres no point in me working if their taking 6 pound out of the income support because im earning 15 pound every two weeks and i was told if i give up this job they will stop my money completely so im basically risking my health doing maid work every two weeks for 9 quid extra every two weeks how does that even work but if i give up the job i have they will stop my money yet they wont help me with more funding so i can take on more work. Their a bunch of liars and trap you even if your earning the smallets amount of money, what is 9 pound going to pay what 9 pound on my electric key that lasts two days . Their a bunch of liars and nasty selfish people, i can’t get any other jobs because i couldnt pay my tv license and they wouldn’t accept what i offered so they gave me a criminal record for tv license hence now no matter what 16 hour job interviews i go for i will never get them because of what tv license have done to my record. so I’m completly stuck with three kids in toe trying to work and their taking nearly half my wage of fifteen pound every two weeks the system is disgusting, forceing us into work and cutting our money down if we don’t, we do what they ask find a poorly paid job because that is all who will employ us and they still take half of that wage. Yet they wont offer more funding so i can reach my sixteen hours so i basically started working for no reason and now they have me trapped. I don’t have a choice but to continue earning the 15 pound every two weeks even though they take 6 pound out of it because if i do give it up they will stop my money yet their still cutting my money down. So don’t believe them when they say oh you will be better of if you work even a temporary job because unless you can get employed by a proper company for the 16 hours you dont have a chance in hell.
that is typical ov dwp that is and in keeping with the saying the rich get richer and the poor get poorer i have been a carer for 15 years now and at first it was 62 pounds a week carers and 92 pounds a fortnight income suport but we got in a relationship and got married once we got married they cut my income support from the 92 pounds a fortnight to 36 pounds a fortnight but out ov that i am paying 20pounds to budgeting loans out ov my carers alouanceand 12 pounds out ov my income suport for council tax its ludicruse what they xpect you to live on im unable to ork now because i suffer with severe anxiety attacks and pannick attacks depreshion and have discs in my back going and in my neck so im on morphine and all sorts ov medication i had my interview for pip this week but im not holding my breath expecting to get it ive sufered for years with the problems but allways thought there are people worse off than me so never claimed as i couldnt go into job centres i cant cope around groups ov people so im mostly housebound so i finally flled out forms and had them put in the dwp dont care about us they are just interested in there own wage packet at the end ov the month we are just an iritaion to them
I am a single mum of a 19 month old. I’m on income support. My last payment over the Xmas period was £79.36 for the fortnight.
I’ve had no letters saying they are taking they are taking £34.62 off my money. The last letter I received was in early December and my weekly benefit was £60.20 . How do they expect me to live on that amount and even worse not even notify me.
I’m 73 years of age and they are taking £65 a week out of my pension credit, and have been for three years now which is over £10,000. They wrote to me in Feb 2017 and said they would be paying me £2 a week until 2026 which would be taking over £90 a week from me for the next 9 years. I’ve tried to find out how much they can take but can’t find out.
Can they take overpayments from DLA? What must they consider in relation to adult safeguarding?
I had a repayment plan of £10 per month accepted by DWP for crisis and budgeting loans from 10 years ago that I thought had already been paid back from my benefits. After 2 and a half years of payments I made a new claim for JSA, the DWP completely ignored the repayment plan agreed (I wasn’t in arrears or missed any payment), sent a DEA to my previous employer who had been dead for 18 months and then took £7.50 a fortnight from my giro. I was told I owed £387 originally but I’ve paid more than that back and now I’ve got a new demand for £30. The DWP are clueless to the amount of money owed and to the hardship and misery that their actions are bringing to people.
I’m affraid there is only one solution, Contact The “Devils Work Program” on 01 666
6666 and offer your soul as payment, you will then get a job with them as a DWP Agent collecting other POOR souls. To apply you must have a Dodgy accounting certificate that you printed up yourself, lack of empathy, and a really low moral compass, you must also own a very high opinion of yourself. Good luck to all new applicants. Bahahaha
I’m commenting because of my current situation. I’m a single mum of two boys aged 1&3 years and get income support £73 a week and tax credits and child benefit tc and cb are both weekly and on same day so I get £149 every week from that then fortnightly my is which should be £146 but I had a budgeting loan last year and agreed about £15 a week to pay it back. Now some water bill and another company have contacted them and I’m having more deductions plus my loan debt is at £22 o don’t remember agreeing to that anyway today o got paid £74. So there taking almost exactly half of my money, I was on esa untill recently getting £220 a fortnight due to my mental health and some other physical health issues but I want to work soon and was advised to go onto is while I look for work anyway I can’t believe they can take this much money. The weekly money is enough for food and gas and electric but my fortnight money usually goes on kids and there clothes nappies and playschool fees or shoes etc they need but now I can’t even cover that. I owe the playschool £80 20month lunches for my 3ye old and was hoping to pay today but after food and nappies I need there won’t be enough left. I know from past exp you can call them to get the amount reduced but this takes about a month to settle and take affect so basically it’s a struggle till then. I pray everyday for a job and a chance in life so o can bring these boys up better then how we are living now, there the only reason I’m living seriously benefit life is so depressing. I’m also expected to pay £26 a month council tax out of my benefits which I’m struggling with and I’ve got no one to help at all. Anyone else in my position I feel for you don’t give up especially if you have kids they need us thanks for this post hope my situation improves asap.
I’ve just found this article as I was searching the internet due to a letter I have received this morning telling me of ‘Deductions from Employment and Support Allowance.’ The letter states, ‘We have been asked to take money each week from your Employment and Support Allowance. The enclosed page(s) show how much we will deduct and what it is for.’
Having read the letter three (3) times I cannot see any reason given for these deductions. The deductions will be from 07/12/18 to 03/01/19 @ £24.36p a week (leaving me a grand sum of £48.74p weekly) and then from 04/01/19 to 10/01/19 @ £17.43 a week (leaving me a grand sum of £55.67p weekly) I have a mortgage, with which I receive no help whatsoever (unlike those in Council or Private housing who have most of their rent paid) gas, electricity, TV Licence, broadband (needed for job searching) and water rates all paid by Direct Debit. Sadly the payments I will be receiving will not cover these, so perhaps I will lose my house. How can the DWP deduct money from ESA/JSA or other benefits without reason?
Can ANYONE understand this:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/683470/benefit-overpayment-recovery-guide.pdf
I currently receive jsa 140 every two weeks and there currently only receiving 98 pound and also taking ten pound from my child tax .
This close to Christmas is very difficult with a seven year old child .
Does anybody know if I can get his reduced ?
You could try speaking to them and asking for a reduction due to ‘hardship’ because of your outgoings, etc. (They may want proof of certain things) The minimum they can deduct from benefits is between two and thee pounds a week. Not sure anyone will understand the attached (website PDF) not even DWP personnel.
Only £18.41 a week, you’re lucky! I’m currently being deducted £24.36 a week out of £73.10 leaving me less than £50. I do not receive Housing Benefit (which you possibly receive) as I have a mortgage to pay and receive no help with that. Some years ago I took an ex-Employer to an Industrial Tribunal, come judgement day someone came into the waiting room and asked for me. They then introduced themselves as being from the DWP and that they would be claiming back the benefits I had received during my period of unemployment. For that period of 5 months and 4 days of unemployment they recovered all they had paid me, the princely sum of just under £120.
‘Social security administration act 122 states no money is allowed to be taken out of your benefits without your consent’ This appears to be wrong, THEY inform you how much THEY will be deducting YOU then have to negotiate!
I think it’s 14 % they can take. But what I don’t understand I’d when you get your benefit awards letter it says the law says your need 71.00 a week to live on, but then they’re allowed to deduct from this. So when your paying back loans or crisis loans, legally your living on less that what the law says is required. 🤦♀️ Right now they take 61.00 off me a fortnight and I’m a single mum with kids. The thing is I’ve not borrowed for over 3 years and have no idea what I’m paying back at such high rates…
When the DWP deducted what they claimed was an overpayment of £124 and some pence from my benefits last year they took it back at a rate of £24 and some pence each week. From my total benefits of £73.10 p a week this was quite a lump. Believe it or not I’ve been up against them since June 1996 when my son enlisted into the Forces. From just before his 8th birthday (when his mother went to Social Services and told them, ‘I don’t want that one’ (as if he was a ‘fashion accessory’ I’d raised him. I soon learned single mothers get much more than single fathers. I even refused the offer of £6 a week Single Parent Benefit as they would have withheld it from my dole (JSA) Then, as soon as he joined up I got letters telling me I’d been overpaid thousands of pounds. Naturally I asked what the overpayments were, for a breakdown and all sorts of questions. They claimed they couldn’t provide me the information but I was chased from then until 2009 making repayments. If I was working I repaid £40 a month and when I was claiming dole deductions were made from my benefit (not much in those days, we only got around £57 a week) I’m still very angry about this and their attitude, if I’d truly been overpaid the amounts I repaid I’m sure I should have been in the Sunday Times Rich List!
I’m on universal credit and this month got a payment of £64. I’m paying back two advanced payments of £10 and £12.50, but also got hit with a deduction of £106 for a speeding fine. Last month I was deducted £15 for the fine, which I thought was acceptable and was to be the same every month until paid, until I saw I had only received £64. I rang the DWP to be told there’s nothing that can be done about it and there are no advanced payments available to me, but here’s a number for a local food bank. I am so angry that I was not given any warning that my next payment was going to be so low. No one can budget for £64 a month, but a little forewarning may of helped, instead of waking up on pay day to find you haven’t got enough money to eat, let alone pay bills. The treatment from the staff at DWP was also disgusting. They offered no help (apart from the food bank number), where cold and had no sympathy for my situation as they gave me automated responses and call card answers.
Dear Kate, having been on the higher fortnightly JSA rate of £380.20 for around 20 months I recently found a job at Morrisons on Nightshift (£10.65) contracted to 15 hours per week – so this wouldnt affect my existing fortnightly JSA payments. Yesterday at my latest Jobcentre appointment they updated this on their system, they said that on my next JSA payment date deductions would be taken (this tues 10th Dec) Do you have any idea how much from the £380.20 they will take or how much in each pound they take? Just so I can plan my budget. Thanks
Kind regards