how long do overpayment take to sort out?

my friend was reported to the DWP dept, accused of working, which is ridiculous he has a LD and mental health issues, and has never worked, the DWP said its probably a malicious call but we have to follow this through now??

he had to go for a compliance interview and the job centre a month ago, they asked if he had any savings and he said yes savings of 11,000, the interviewer said well we should be informed of savings over 6k,
but in his letter dated 2012 it said your entitled to contributions rate and income related if you and your partner have 16,000 (no mention of the 6 k threshold, and no mention on previous award letters following the years after

he's now paying back £22 a week for the current assets which he has in his bank £11,0000


made up of
£110 CB & £70 IR

the interviewer said it will take a few months for a answer as they would need to check back on previous years bank statements, on wether any overpayment will need to be paid back, and they would have to go back through a few years of bank statements?

my friend did not know that he had to declare any savings for this matter because he was migrated over from incapacity to ESA Support group, and when he was awarded his award letter said contributions based and IR and to inform of savings at 16,000

can they claim so much back? could he challenged this because he was never aware of the 6 k threshold NO LETTER STATED THIS if so how much and what percentage, i assume they can only claim on the IR not the contributions based -

can he be prosecuted for this oversight which isn't even his fault, if he was made aware!! that he needed to inform if he had 6k savings or more but he was NEVER INFORMED!!! I've read some where that if overpayment is 2000 it can goto the CPS? i would assume is overpayment wouldn't be that much because it would be based only on the IR of £70

Any advise welcomed, thank you

Hi john and Welcome to the forum, you might want to have a look at the following FAQ which explain where everything is

Welcome to Benefits and Work

Income-related ESA stops completely once the claimant has savings/assets amounting to £16000. However, it is reduced proportionally once £6000 is exceeded. The general attitude is that ignorance of the law is no defence.

You are right in thinking that this only affects any IR portion of the claim. DWP are able to claim back any overpayment, this can even be taken from future benefits (such as a state retirement pension) if it has not been dealt with before that time.

Your friend's best course of action will be to get face to face advice from a welfare expert. This will involve looking back at bank statements etc for the duration of the claim and is something that we cannot do here on the forum.

The claimant is entitled to have someone with them during the interview and we certainly advise that they should do so.

You might wish to bookmark/favourite this on your web browser now so that you can find it easily in future. That means you will be able to return and post further questions here rather than having to start a new topic each time. It helps us enormously if everything relating to the same issue is kept in one place

comment

So if it's just on the IR £70 a week what would the overpayment amount be each week?

my friend went for a standard compliance interview at the job centre a months ago.
he has heard nothing about paying back an over payment back or had no letters

how long does it take a descion maker to get back to him?

how long does it take the job centre to0 request bank statements from his bank?

thanks