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Arrears paid twice

DWP told me in February I might be due some arrears - not a huge sum but welcome nonetheless - but were withholding it as I may have been overpaid in the past. The sum in question has been paid into my bank account this morning. Twice. Two separate payments for the same amount paid with the normal code for fortnightly ESA.
Clearly this is in error. I know I am entitled to just one of these payments. My query is what do I do now? Is it my responsibility to report the error? This'll mean at least an hour of my time on the phone to inform them of their mistake. Or should I wait for their systems to pick up the error and they send a request for repayment.
I'd prefer to pay this back as soon as possible but if I can avoid the depressing experience of having to phone them I'd like to do that too.
Clearly this is in error. I know I am entitled to just one of these payments. My query is what do I do now? Is it my responsibility to report the error? This'll mean at least an hour of my time on the phone to inform them of their mistake. Or should I wait for their systems to pick up the error and they send a request for repayment.
I'd prefer to pay this back as soon as possible but if I can avoid the depressing experience of having to phone them I'd like to do that too.
Replies
Do you have an online journal you can put a note on rather than phoning them Im sure they would respond quickly to an overpayment or maybe they may realise the error that has been made
Thanks for this. Bit late in the day now so I guess I'd better set aside Monday morning to speak to them! What's an 'online journal?' I suppose having to ask means I don't have one.
Online journal is a communication tool for claimants of universal credit I didnt know if ESA claims had the same obviously not
Hope you get it sorted but I'm sure DWP are still open rather than waiting and worrying all weekend
Nothing bad ever happened to that latter group.
But that's just how I see it.
1 - overpayments of UC are always recoverable and challengeable in very limited circumstances. There is some discretion. UC don’t want to use it at all IMPO (in my personal opinion).
2 - payments on account (advances etc.) are also automatically recoverable but again there is discretion on recovery.
4 - everything else is only recoverable if there’s been a failure to disclose or misrepresentation of a material fact. These are precise terms; explored in case law for many decades. S71 as enacted can be found here https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1992/5/section/71/enacted should anyone wish it read it.
5 - now, I may have this wrong completely but the post from @woodbine reads as though they believe I said there’s some common law principle which prevents the OP from having to pay back the money. That’s actually the opposite of what I said.
S71 is what prevents recovery. If the claimant didn’t fail to disclose or misrepresent then there are no legal grounds for recovery. It also says that if you want to challenge recoverability there is a process for you to do that.
Excellent CPAG article here covers this. https://cpag.org.uk/welfare-rights/resources/article/overpayments-and-recovery-common-law which I hope will give the OP some confidence that I am hardly alone in my view.