esa overpayment advise please

[silvercat27]

my friend was reported to the DWP fraud 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, he's now paying back £22 a week for the current assets which he has in his bank

(however he had a letter in 2012 saying he's entitled to contribution based and income related, and only to inform of savings of 16,000 never mentioned a 6k threshold and I've checked all the letters and forms and they state 16,000 (not 6k)!

made up of
£110 CB & £70 IR

the interviewer said it will take up-to three months for a answer, on wether any overpayment will need to be paid back, and they would have to go back through 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? if so how much and what percentage, i assume thy can only claim on the IR not the contributions based - and can this be challenged because he wasn't aware, the letter he has never said 6k or more in savings, he has the letter which states 16k

can he be prosecuted for this oversight which isn't even is fault, I've read some where that if overpayment is 2000 it can goto the CPS? i would assume is overpayment at a guess is about 4,000??

[mike83]

I don't know much but on my incapacity and later ESA forms I remember reading about having to inform if you have more than £6,000 savings as you will get a reduced rate and that if you have over £16,000 you can't get anything. It's odd you can't find a form that says that information.

I don't think they will prosecute, as long as he keeps up payments (how are they taking back the £22?)

I would imagine you will need to look back at his bank statements (you can do it online) and see when he passed the £6,000 threshold and print out from there or you could ask the bank to print them possibly. Then give that to the Job centre and they can calculate how much he has to pay. Perhaps he could pay it all off in one go then.

They should then adjust the amount of benefits he is getting so he should still be able to have over £6,000 just he won't be getting as much each week. Or perhaps he could go on a spending spree to get back under 6,000!

Its worth going to citizens advice or the job centre pleading the case again though, take all the forms he has where it doesn't say anything about £6,000 in savings. Sorry I'm not more help but I don't really know what they do in these situations.