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Repayment of benefits for backdated pension ?

Unusual query.
I was on benefits last year. when I received a letter from the Scottish Public Pension Agency.
It said ‘I am writing to you in relation to your unclaimed teacher’s pension which became payable from your 60th birthday (17/05/2015) … Your pension will be backdated to your 60th birthday’.
I signed off immediately and claimed the pension including the backdated amount. The question is whether the DWP could ask me to repay the benefits for the four years of backdated pension.
I am asking because I want to claim a tax rebate for those four years and am frightened the tax people will contact the DWP.
Thank you !!!
Replies
@eric144, I hope you don't mind, I'm going to speak to our benefit adviser @Joanne_Scope to confirm and I'll get back to you as soon as possible.
Scope
If you have a few minutes to spare, we'd appreciate your feedback on our online community.
I think that is possible that the DWP will re examine your benefits over the period when you could have claimed your pension.
Usually if people choose not to access a pension they are entitled to, the DWP regard this as "notional income" and they treat the person as if they have got the money and reduce the benefits accordingly on a weekly/monthly basis.
If the monthly pension would have taken you over the limit for means tested benefits completely then you could be asked to repay the benefits.
If you were getting contribution based ESA the rules are different and your ESA would have been reduced by 50% of any pension payment over £85 per week so it would be harder to work out what you might be asked to repay.
If the DWP decide that you have an overpayment then they will contact you. They have access to information from HMRC so I don't think that claiming your tax rebate will trigger anything that would not happen anyway.
I hope this helps. If you want to talk it through with one of our advisers please feel free to call our helpline on 0808 800 3333. We are open 8am to 7pm Monday to Friday and 10am to 6pm on Saturday and Sunday.
Scope
I read about "notional income" on this forum and indeed someone was asked to pay it back. That's why I asked the question.
The tax people want a record of my income in each year and as I was claiming benefits at the time I am scared they will contact the DWP. I don't suppose they would.
The DWP don't know about the pension because there was no reason for me to tell them. I only found out about notional income some time later on this forum (after I signed off) . I am not going to tell them b/c I behaved entirely properly and don't want to give most of my savings to the government who won't miss it !
very best wishes
Eric
I've claimed the pension for more than a year now so they didn't find out. I couldn't claim the tax rebate before April 2020 and the Covid situation has meant the process has been delayed by the pension people being on urgent contact only.
best
Eric
I do agree with @poppy123456. It is always best to tell the DWP about changes. They will pick up on the information eventually.
Scope
I was an extremely unhappy customer as you can see from the post I made just after this one. It was the dishonest and dysfunctional correspondence around the appeal that annoyed me. I will not be contacting them again. I just wanted to get away from the entire, horrible system.
https://community.scope.org.uk/discussion/73038/wca-statement-from-assessor-disappeared#latest
I get you may have your reasons but it is dishonest to have got benefits that you are not entitled to . I understand you didnt do anything intentionally at the time but now you are aware and should do the right thing
Only my own opinion
When I made the appeal I was told that any subsequent WCA (automatic fail) would overrule the appeal. Sure enough I got another WCA invitation before I was given an appeal date. This is Sisyphus* on acid. An eternal round of misery, stress and extreme poverty. My adviser didn't tell me it was he who set up the WCA. I didn't ask him anything. All information came from this and similar forums.
I wouldn't trust them to tell the truth or know what they're doing. The letters were sometimes childish and offhand. However everyone I met in person was extremely nice. The system not the people.
I will not be found out because there is no mechanism for me to be found out. I have a P60 from HMRC. I have no connection to the DWP and no intention of making one. For me to hand back that money would be an enormous penalty to me. One I have no intention of paying.
I admit to being surprised that people feel it necessary to express their opinion on this. Would you hand the money back ? Really ?
* Sisyphus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisyphus
I agree the system is very unpleasant and lots of us have been subjected to having to fight for what is rightfully ours me included
But yes I would pay back anything I owed as I couldn't sleep at night
I wont comment further
If I was well off I would pay it back but I'm really not.
cheers
Tell us what happened. Did you repay money ? How much was it ? Exactly what happened ?
I haven't had any contact with the DWP for more than a year. In the astoundingly unlikely situation the DWP contacted me I could simply plead ignorance of the rules. A rather prim former school prefect friend I told this to was shocked when he heard the notional income rule.
For me the benefits repayment would be bigger than the back pension even before tax. This was a mistake made by the pensions agency, not me and I think (under the circumstances) it' would be cruel to ask me to pay it back even if it is against the rules.
Incidentally my tax rebate claim was made on the basis of rules the ones I spoke to at HMRC hadn't heard of. They sent me a letter confirming I was correct.That's the power of Google !!