income support has messed up :/

[shaggyowen]

right at 17 i left home and moved out and went on income support, and then after a few months moved out of my flat and have been sofa surfing since staying at mates houses and that, my income supposrt got stoped a few months ago and iv onli just got a letter through 2day and theyv said iv been over paid and that i owe them £7000 odd :/ and say its cuz my child benefit stoped last year? whats child benefit? and why didnt they stop my income support then rather than get £7000 in debt with them? im not paying them back as its there cock up, how am i ment to know what im entitled to thats what they r there for do i have to pay this as im not going to how can they expect some1 whos on benefits to have a penny to there name? need some help im only 19 and have no job no money :/ :wacko::wall:

[LucyR]

Hi, Child Benefit will have been paid to you in respect of your children.

[daisycake]

right at 17 i left home and moved out and went on income support, and then after a few months moved out of my flat and have been sofa surfing since staying at mates houses and that, my income supposrt got stoped a few months ago and iv onli just got a letter through 2day and theyv said iv been over paid and that i owe them £7000 odd :/ and say its cuz my child benefit stoped last year? whats child benefit? and why didnt they stop my income support then rather than get £7000 in debt with them? im not paying them back as its there cock up, how am i ment to know what im entitled to thats what they r there for do i have to pay this as im not going to how can they expect some1 whos on benefits to have a penny to there name? need some help im only 19 and have no job no money :/ :wacko::wall:
I'm no expert on these things but that seems wrong :lac: - go to the citizens advice and explain :)

[shaggyowen]

i dont have any children :/ and ok i will do

[LucyR]

Hi, Perhaps Income Support was paid but it was then stopped after you reached 16+? £7000 seems a lot to expect you to pay back, I think it sounds like they have made an error of some sort.

[Dizz]

right at 17 i left home and moved out and went on income support, and then after a few months moved out of my flat and have been sofa surfing since staying at mates houses and that, my income supposrt got stoped a few months ago and iv onli just got a letter through 2day and theyv said iv been over paid and that i owe them £7000 odd :/ and say its cuz my child benefit stoped last year? whats child benefit? and why didnt they stop my income support then rather than get £7000 in debt with them? im not paying them back as its there cock up, how am i ment to know what im entitled to thats what they r there for do i have to pay this as im not going to how can they expect some1 whos on benefits to have a penny to there name? need some help im only 19 and have no job no money :/ :wacko::wall:

Hiya Shaggy.... how blummin awful to receive a letter like that. I really feel for you :hugs:

Child Benefit is a payment that every parent gets from HM Customs & Revenue (regardless of circumstances/work etc) and it is usually paid to the parent(s) of a child until their 16th birthday. HOWEVER.... payment can be made upto the age of 19 if you(the child) are in full time education.

I don't fully understand your letter though as you mention it says that YOU own the money because your Child Benefit stopped last year... like I said that would have been paid to you parent(s) not you so I'm a little confused.

If you can give a bit more info I'll see what I can find out for you as it doesn't sound right.

Have you rung HM Revenues and Customs and asked them (if they are the ones who sent you the letter of course) as they are really nice and very helpfull..... or is your letter from the local authority or someone else ?

Sorry if that's not much help at the moment.

[shaggyowen]

i will type up what the whole letter says of at least the relevent stuff

dear mr owen about your income support

OUR NEW DECISION
our new decision is that you are not entitled to income support because your child benefit extension period ended on 07.09.09

our new decision means you have been overpaid. if the overpayment is recoverable, a separate decision will be sent to you advising you of the amount of overpayment and why it is recoverable from you.
if you need any futher info contact me with the number at the top (job centre number)

(next page says about queastions you might have about your decision so blablabla and also how to appeal) and then the last page is an overpayment schedule 'calculating' my over payment and saying i owe them £7,197.37p to be exact.


the envelop if came is in hand written wich the job centre never usealy do and it just dosent seem like a 'real' letter might be but im not paying £7000 lol :/ any help?

[daisycake]

Ok... So basically what they are saying, I think, is that you shouldnt have got income support after your child benefit ended - and that whatever you have received since then, you should pay back. BUT as it was with me, my mum received my child benefit and I presume its the same with your folks. It just seems a bit weird. I would definitely give them a phone or something and seek advice - if its their mistake you shouldnt have to pay back that money!!

[LucyR]

It seems a lot of money for child benefit. Also, sometimes the DHSS send a letter like this and then another one about a benefit you will or have received instead, its all in their lingo thats why its all set out in an impersonal and confusing way. Sometimes they do hand write an envelope, usually when their computer systems are down.

[shaggyowen]

basicly there bellend =[ im gonna go down citizen advise on monday and see what the crack is.. its pissed me off major though as i dont have a penny to my name im gonna rear up on them when i actouly know my rights =]

[paula lynne]

Sounds like a big mistake shaggy if you dont even have kids! :wtf1:

[shaggyowen]

i hope so =]

[paula lynne]

Hahah.....are you SURE? x:ohmy:

[Nigel]

Hi Shaggyowen,

Definitely see what CAB make of it. They’re independent and can advise you how best to approach Benefits if they do expect repayment.

“the envelop if came is in hand written wich the job centre never usealy do and it just dosent seem like a 'real' letter”

It’s a possibility, especially as it doesn’t make a lot of sense. Hard times can bring out the worst in some people.

Best of luck with it,
Nigel

[shaggyowen]

i ment i hope so as in i hope its a big mistake not that i hjope i havent got kids lol :/ and yeh defo gonna go down there on mondya and see whats what =]

[Belfry1973]

Just my thoughts.................

Just before you left home or when you did leave were you in education? I'm presuming you were because you are on IS. I 'think' that what may have happened is that someone carried on claiming CB for you, that coupled with the fact of you being in education meant you kept getting IS.
Then someone didnt renew the claim when you turned 19 to say you were still in education, they've noticed this, think you were not studying anymore and counted you as being overpaid IS.
You can only get IS at 19 if you live away from your parents and are in full-time education (and a few other things but you dont mention them), if you aint you shouldnt have been being paid IS hence the overpayment.

Even so, that wouldnt account for the amount you mentioned, or if someone had been naughty and carried on claiming the CB and all the other benefits you can get when a child over 16 is in education such as Child Tax Credits and its been attributed to you!

[Ozpanic]

I'ts prob a spam letter! I doubt the feds would write in handwriting lol..:roflmao::roflmao:

[linjoy]

If they have made the error and it's not your fault they can't make you pay any money back because it's their fault

[Going home]

I know that you have to be 18 to sign on and get unemployment benefit and until then you're entitled to claim income support. You say child benefit was stopped last year which sounds about right because then you would've been 16 and not into higher education, but what isn't clear is why they've stopped the income support and why they are sending you letters about child benefit, as has been said here already, that would've been a letter for whoever you were living with as your parent or guardian. They're not making themselves very clear are they? Hope you get it sorted out shaggy.

Anna xx

[nomorepanic]

Umm nice subject title - can we not rephrase that a bit?

[Anxious_gal]

Yeah might be good to change the title :winks:

Ok here in Ireland it works like this, if the social welfare people /income support,
over pay you, then you have to pay them back even if it's there mistake, here they take maybe 10 euros a week off you, they only take a little amount per week until they get all the money back.

I hope you get it sorted it, x it's very unfair.

[LucyR]

Umm nice subject title - can we not rephrase that a bit?

Yes absolute disgrace to the folk who do not appreciate this sort of language!!

[shaggyowen]

lmfao calm down people aha

[LucyR]

We are all calm enough but we don't like your title it is extremely inappropriate.

[shaggyowen]

you dont have to read it lol.

[eeyorelover]

It shows up scrolling thru the site whether you go into the thread or not.
I changed the title because it is profane and not appropriate.
If you have an issue with that feel free to PM me.

I do hope you get this resolved tho because it doesn't sound like you should be penalized for what was received before you were an adult!!
xxx
Sandy

[shaggyowen]

i did change it to income support NOT GOOD :/ but it didnt change? safe anyways and yeh well citizens advice it is on monday then lol =]

[LucyR]

Hi, So did Income Support really mess up or what happened exactly?