Disco Stu Posted January 23, 2012 Author Share Posted January 23, 2012 Write to them. At the head of your letter write 'without prejudice' put these two words on any further communication that you have with them as it means that it cannot be used as evidence in court. Ask them for documentation regarding the 'alleged' debt and the exact amount. Again the word 'alleged' is important as it means that you are not accepting any responsibility for the debt. Once you have their proof you can then decide what action you choose to take. If they have no evidence there is no problem. If you accept the debt as yours and choose to repay it you can enter into an agreement and pay off so much a month according to your circumstances. Do not be panicked or bullied by their letters that is what they are hoping for. Stay in communication with them but do it in writing or if you email send hard copy and if you are emailing again use the words 'alleged' and 'without prejudice'. Legal bit can be found here....http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1980/58 Hope that helps. Thank you, this is really useful info. I did state in my conversation with them it was an alleged debt and I believed I did not owe this money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BHRemovals Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 check with cab Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dawny1970 Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 thought the 6 year rule would apply, ie, no debt is enforceable after 6 years without contact? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeMaquis Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 thought the 6 year rule would apply, ie, no debt is enforceable after 6 years without contact? This http://www.payplan.com/debt-library/joint-and-several-liability-the-limitation-act-1980.php says this Benefit Overpayments The Department of Work & Pensions (DWP) can chase debts after 6 years without going to court. They reclaim the overpayments by deducting them from current benefits. So the OP needs to get some proper advice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phanerothyme Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 If the letter is from the National Salary Overpayment Unit (NSOU) and its for less than £10,000 I would be tempted to let it lie, and not respond. They've got bigger fish to fry, and are (as I understand it) well behind schedule. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XXTickerXX Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 Edit...just saw it was DWP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
truman Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 Only if it has a CCJ attached would it be enforcable and then they would have to go back to court to explain why they have not chased it sooner which they very rarely do. If no payment has been paid within the last 6 years...ie from the date YOU last paid anything towards it then it becomes statute barred.You will still owe the money but legally there is nothing they can do to recover it. This is the DWP..the government..I'm fairly sure they can chase up old debts.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gadgit Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 I've had a nearly identical case only a few months ago. The Department for Work & Pensions sent me a letter stating I owed them money from 16 Years ago!! I repeatedly phoned them asking for some kind of proof as I haven't claimed any kind of benefit for over 13 years and couldn't remember why or what this money was supposed to owed for. I never received anything. This went on for weeks and they passed me onto a debt collection agency. I got in touch with my solicitor, the 5 year rule does not apply to Government departments and they can chase a debt after any number of years. You can refuse to pay back the money but they will recover it if you ever claim any benefits again or failing that, get this, it's great - they will wait till you retire and take it from your pension. My solicitor told me to do this: - Write a letter disputing their claims and ask for written proof of the basis for the claim and the name of the person you can contact if you are not satisfied. Also demand that they call off any debt collecting dogs until you have managed to look at their claim. - Send a reminder with a copy of the original if you have no response in 10 days. - Send a second reminder with copies of previous correspondence after a further 10 days including a comment that you will be refering the matter to your MP. I did this and received a letter back just before Xmas that stated - ""as part of the investigation I have requested an assisted search of your records, and this has failed to produce the file. Without this evidence I have decided to abandon the two claims held on our system for the periods 3 August 1995 to 7 September 1995 and 21 May 1999 to 4 June 1999. This is not an admission that overpayments have not occurred. It simply indicates that the decisions to support continued recovery are no longer available to us." Hope that helps you in some way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Disco Stu Posted January 24, 2012 Author Share Posted January 24, 2012 I've had a nearly identical case only a few months ago. The Department for Work & Pensions sent me a letter stating I owed them money from 16 Years ago!! I repeatedly phoned them asking for some kind of proof as I haven't claimed any kind of benefit for over 13 years and couldn't remember why or what this money was supposed to owed for. I never received anything. This went on for weeks and they passed me onto a debt collection agency. I got in touch with my solicitor, the 5 year rule does not apply to Government departments and they can chase a debt after any number of years. You can refuse to pay back the money but they will recover it if you ever claim any benefits again or failing that, get this, it's great - they will wait till you retire and take it from your pension. My solicitor told me to do this: - Write a letter disputing their claims and ask for written proof of the basis for the claim and the name of the person you can contact if you are not satisfied. Also demand that they call off any debt collecting dogs until you have managed to look at their claim. - Send a reminder with a copy of the original if you have no response in 10 days. - Send a second reminder with copies of previous correspondence after a further 10 days including a comment that you will be refering the matter to your MP. I did this and received a letter back just before Xmas that stated - ""as part of the investigation I have requested an assisted search of your records, and this has failed to produce the file. Without this evidence I have decided to abandon the two claims held on our system for the periods 3 August 1995 to 7 September 1995 and 21 May 1999 to 4 June 1999. This is not an admission that overpayments have not occurred. It simply indicates that the decisions to support continued recovery are no longer available to us." Hope that helps you in some way. Thank You for this advice,I will write to them as you did and see what happens. Otherwise as I am now in fulltime employment and have been apart from the two months they are requesting back from 13 years ago I will probably get it took out of my pension for what its worth as they probably wont be a state pension when I retire anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davyboy Posted January 24, 2012 Share Posted January 24, 2012 Write to them. At the head of your letter write 'without prejudice' put these two words on any further communication that you have with them as it means that it cannot be used as evidence in court. Ask them for documentation regarding the 'alleged' debt and the exact amount. Again the word 'alleged' is important as it means that you are not accepting any responsibility for the debt. Once you have their proof you can then decide what action you choose to take. If they have no evidence there is no problem. If you accept the debt as yours and choose to repay it you can enter into an agreement and pay off so much a month according to your circumstances. Do not be panicked or bullied by their letters that is what they are hoping for. Stay in communication with them but do it in writing or if you email send hard copy and if you are emailing again use the words 'alleged' and 'without prejudice'. Legal bit can be found here....http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1980/58 Hope that helps. DO NOT WRITE TO THEM even with without prejudice at the top. After six years debts are not enforceable unless you have acknowledged them,which writing to the creditor may do. Go to the CAB. SEE THIS FROM ADVICE GUIDE: Has the time limit for recovering the debt run out In law, a lender has a set amount of time to take you to court for a debt. If a lender doesn’t start court action within the time limit, they usually can't force you to pay back the money. The debt is then known as statute barred. If it's been around six years (five years in Scotland)or more since you've paid any money towards the debt or written to the lender about it, it's important to check what to do next before you contact the lender. This is because if you say the wrong thing, it may affect your right to argue that you don't owe the money. You should check whether a debt is statute barred in the following situations: before you contact a lender to arrange repayment of a debt if you're taken to court for money you owe. If the lender does get in touch with you after six years (five years in Scotland), you should not agree that you owe any money or offer to make payments until you've taken advice from a specialist debt adviser. This will help you to avoid accidently admitting you owe the money when you don't. Once you admit you owe the money, the time limit may no longer apply. If you think it's been six years (five years in Scotland) or more since you paid any money towards your debt, you should get advice about what to do before you have any contact with the lender. You can get advice from your local Citizens Advice Bureau. To search for details of your nearest CAB, including those that can give advice by email, click on (New window) nearest CAB. Back to top Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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