can i stop dwp taking nearly 90% of my £780 backdated lcwra payment.

Norton2007

hi,yes,so i have been awarded lcwra and with this entitlement i am owed £780.12 backdated lcwra money,i received the message n pdf in my journal ,,however in the what happens next paragraph of this letter it says "as you already have an amount to pay back,we may use this to recover some or all of your overpayment.",,,which i didnt understand as ive never had a universal credit overpayment since starting my claim,,then the next paragraph states should i wish to discuss this to call and gives in the letter the number for the debt managment line...
so i called the number and spoke to a lovely advisor and explained my confusion and could he please give me if possible an explanation.
this is what i was told,,
that i had 3 tax credit overpayments dates and amount are
£54 april 2008
£366.86 (was originally £559,i have been paying back £18.10 every month directly from my universal credit since begin of my uc start.),,,april 2019.
£148.41 july 2019.
i was told that in total these 3 overpayments will be taken from my £780 leaving £212,i was told that that is all i receive,,.
i then said n asked why can i not continue with the way i have been paying back for last god knows how long and was told that dwp auto matically do this without asking etc etc.
is this correct what the advisor told me?
i basically can not do anything to stop this happening and can dwp just do what is stated above?

poppy123456

Yes they can take the money you owe from the money they owe you and they send it to debt management. They don't need to ask you before taking what you owe. If it causes you hardship you can ask them not to take it but you'll need to give a reason. One good thing is that at least you'll no longer have any deductions each month.

Norton2007

thank you poppy123456 for answering my query,i did ask the advisor about  If it causes me hardship can i ask them not to take it or even take some but not all of it and was told that it aotomatically gets sent to debt managment and that i would have to ask for a refund so to speak from them which the advisor said can take upto a month as long as i have good enough reason and provide enough proof of why i want a refund.

woodbine

They are perfectly entitled to take any debts from any back-payments, look on the positive side you will have rapid the outstanding debts.