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I don't know how to handle my UC appeal. I can't pay for a lawyer. Can anyone help?

Marcelabayres

I need to appeal a Universal Credit decision and I have no clue how to handle this. I tried to find a lawyer to this for me but they asked me for money and I can't pay. I really need to appeal, because the Universal Credit staff is abusing of its power position forcing me to pay 1.800GBP because THEY MADE A MISTAKE. I don't have anything to do. Can you help me?

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poppy123456

Hi,

I see you've posted another thread saying you've requested the MR which didn't change the decision. May i ask the reason why they've told you that you owe this money? When you claim UC regardless of whether they made an error, payments are recoverable but it will help if you can give us more information.

Marcelabayres

Thanks a lot for your soon answer poppy! A manager named Gareth decided to transfer my rent payment directly into my landlord's bank account. I disagreed, I never gave my consent but he did it anyway. Later a person, here in the house I am living claimed to be the new landlord (this is a complex situation) so he called Universal Credit saying he was landlord and I had arrears. That was not possible because the Universal Credit was payng my rent directly, like I said before. Then, the universal credit staff made an investigation. They decided to suspend the payments. Then they gave me a letter informing me that owed them 1.800GBP, when I never saw a pen of that amount of money. I asked a MR and they contradict themselves "I am satisfied although the changes made to your entitlement on 22/09/2021, were correct, the overpayment decision made on 22/09/2021, was incorrect. My revised decision is that you have not been overpaid, as the housing costs element was incorrectly paid to your previous landlord."

I am not English native speaker and I need help.

poppy123456

Thanks for explaining this. I read this as the MR decision went in your favour and you haven't been overpaid so you don't owe any money. I hope this helps put your mind at rest.

Marcelabayres said:

I asked a MR and they contradict themselves "I am satisfied although the changes made to your entitlement on 22/09/2021, were correct, the overpayment decision made on 22/09/2021, was incorrect. My revised decision is that you have not been overpaid, as the housing costs element was incorrectly paid to your previous landlord."

Marcelabayres

OMG!!! Thank you,poppy again!!!! I thought I didn't get it correctly.

But the problem is that at the beginning of the MR they say

"Dear Marcela [removed by moderator - surname] On 22 September 2021 you asked us to look again at the decision we made on 22 September 2021 about your Universal Credit. We have looked at the evidence used to make the decision and any new information you may have given us. We have decided we cannot change our original decision."

Can you understand it?

I have to appeal, right?

Please, give me a hand to understand,poppy!!!!

poppy123456

This here

Marcelabayres said:

We have decided we cannot change our original decision."

Is different to what you said here. Therefore it's not clear to me.

Marcelabayres said:

"I am satisfied although the changes made to your entitlement on 22/09/2021, were correct, the overpayment decision made on 22/09/2021, was incorrect. My revised decision is that you have not been overpaid, as the housing costs element was incorrectly paid to your previous landlord."
I am not English native speaker and I need help.

poppy123456

I think you need to get some expert advice. Start here for this. https://advicelocal.uk/

Tori_Scope

Welcome to the community @Marcelabayres

I'm sorry to hear about all the stress you've been experiencing with your UC payments.

It does sound as though you could do with getting some expert advice on this, as it can often be easier to explain things one to one to an expert who can look through your case in full. You should be able to get some advice for free, so please do take a look on advicelocal.uk to see what's available in your area.

Also, just to let you know, I've removed what seemed to be your surname from your comment. We don't allow personal details such as full names to be posted onto the community, as is outlined in our house rules.

Marcelabayres

Thank you again, poppy!!! I gave the letter to another English native speaker and he was confused too.

So, I am going to make the appeal and leave the judge take a decision. These people are crazy!

Marcelabayres

Thank you, Tori!!!! I'm sorry about my name in the post. I didn't realized.

poppy123456

Did the person you spoke to have benefits knowledge? There's very little point in taking it to a Tribunal if there's no reason to.

Marcelabayres

He is English,so he knows like everybody, I mean, he's not an expert. But it was good to check with him and with you, because both of you were confused about that letter.

Thank you,poppy, for being there for me!

Marcelabayres

I finally took Universal Credit to court. I received a week ago I letter telling me that my case was still in process.

poppy123456

A Tribunal is not a court and you’re not on trial. It was advised that you get some expert advice, did you do this? There’s very little point in taking it to Tribunal if the overpayment is correct. All overpayments are recoverable for UC.

Marcelabayres

The story is I have dodgy landlord (it's a group of people) and I didn't want UC paid directly into my landlord's account the rent. UC decided they were going to pay rent directly because they said so.

Another person of the group without sending a letter, email or WhatsApp started saying that he was the new landlord. Then this person started calling UC saying that I had arrears with him. I immediately said "No way, I don't have any arrears because UC is paying my rent directly (thank God UC didn't pay attention to me) BUT after that UC said "This is all your fault, you've got overpayment and you have to give us back 1.800 GBP".

As you can imagine I requested a mandatory reconsideration and take UC to court or tribunal,I honestly don't know,because I live in Brent and here if you don't have money, you can't have a lawyer.

Marcelabayres

Annex:

I discovered on April 1st 2022 at Willesden County Court that the person I thought he was my landlord WAS NOT the landlord at all. Consequently his employee, the guy who says he is the new landlord since January 2021 IS NOT the landlord either.

I am living in a occupied house ruled by a group of people that dedicate to occupy abandoned houses and to become them in HMOs.

The problem is the police dosn't do anything about it, Brent Council supports the scammers and nobody cares about this problem.

poppy123456

You don't need a lawyer for a benefits Tribunal. Put your postcode into here and "choose a topic" welfare benefits. https://advicelocal.uk/ this will tell you what advice agency is local to you.