Pension Credit what could happen next?

racyguy

Personally I am not that interested in a winning strategy. As far as I am concerned they are making a mountain out of a mole hill. I have told them already that if they can come up with a correctly formed demand for money that I may have incorrectly received I will send them a cheque by return to clear the matter.
As I have already mentioned in an earlier post, the Pension Service have now instigated another witch hunt stating that they believe that I may well have been overpaid PC from last October until when I closed the claim down. So now I have two claims in progress - Oct 2019 to Oct 2021 and Oct  2021 to Jan 2022.
Additionally last week, be it by coincidence or otherwise my wife received a letter from the DWP debt department saying that she owes £690 from 1997 and that they intend to collect it out of her SRP at the rate of 30%. I have told them that she does not agree. She has no idea what it is for. She has told them that if they will not consider a smaller sum each month over 2 years then she intends to suspend her SRP for at least a year until they do act in a reasonable way - she has no other income other than AA at the night and day rate which is needed for her care.
It does now appear that the DWP are trying to make life difficult for us in as many ways as possible.

calcotti

racyguy said:

She has told them that if they will not consider a smaller sum each month over 2 years then she intends to suspend her SRP for at least a year until they do act in a reasonable way - she has no other income other than AA at the night and day rate which is needed for her care.

If she suspends the SRP they can, I think, take it from the AA.

It seems a rather bizarre approach to object to them taking part of a benefit and then deprive yourself of the whole amount.

racyguy

calcotti said:

If she suspends the SRP they can, I think, take it from the AA.

It seems a rather bizarre approach to object to them taking part of a benefit and then deprive yourself of the whole amount.

Can they? Not according to the local CAB they can't.
Not bizarre at all. The suspension must be for a minimum of 1 year. After then it can be put back into payment and the SRP that was not paid will be refunded to her + interest at the rate of 2% above the current bank rate. Given the amount she gets financially it can be doable.

calcotti

racyguy said:

calcotti said:

If she suspends the SRP they can, I think, take it from the AA.

Can they? Not according to the local CAB they can't.

I was going by Appendix 1 of the Debt Recovery guide which appears to say they can (unless I’m misreading it) but I haven’t been able to verify either way from another source.

I only though it bizarre because from other posts I thought your finances were tight but if that's not the case then obviously you have more flexibility. If she does suspend SRP for a year I would think they could take any outstanding debt from the arrears when she restarts it.

racyguy

Teddybear12 said:

Hi @racyguy Can I just ask what you are hoping to achieve by being so obstructive ? 

Am I?
The Pension Service suggested that I have been overpaid Pension Credit from Oct 2019 to Oct 2021. They required an enormous amount of evidence from me to prove their case. I spent hours getting it all together excepting my bank statements. I explained that sending them the statements would cost me a lot of money (printer ink) and more time that I cannot either afford or genuinely give. Each month I would have had to download and print between 10 and 12 statements per month. Multiply that by 24 months, would take up to 288 pages. In addition due to both the medication that I take and the fact that I tire easily due to my health issues it would take me weeks to print them all off - not the 14 days that they required them by. I even offered them to come to my home and log into my bank account but that was refused.
They were not willing to accept any of that and threatened to close the claim down.
I simply had had enough and closed the claim down myself - I just wanted some peace.

Now they want the same amount of documentation for the period from Oct 2021 to Jan 2022.

I cannot handle the pressure that they are putting me under. I'm not young, in fact I turn 80 in July, Sometimes I wish that my health issues would take me.   

racyguy

Teddybear12 said:

Hi @racyguy I am sorry you are finding the pressure to much, but never wish for that. Could you not just give permission for the DWP to get the information they want from your bank, this would solve your problem. They will not just go away. Take care.

Yes I could but given the fact that I no longer receive PC as the claim was closed down weeks ago what is the point? On top of this enormous pressure and worry, we are already down by £50 a week (Pension Credit), down by over £2000 Council Tax that we now have to pay as it was previously given at 100% rebate due to the PC award, I have had to purchase a TV licence last week. On top of that the DWP are intending to collect over £110 out of my wife's SRP of £330 every 4 weeks for a debt that neither of us has any idea about going back to 1997.

poppy123456

You didn't have to close your PC claim, you chose to do that yourself. If you don't do what they ask you to do then yes you will need to pay back anything you owe.

racyguy

poppy123456 said:

You didn't have to close your PC claim, you chose to do that yourself. If you don't do what they ask you to do then yes you will need to pay back anything you owe.

I think you are missing what I have said previously. I received two letters as far back as December 2021 telling me that if the info - all of the info was not with them by the end of 14 days they intended to suspend the PC claim. I contacted them after the first letter telling them that it was impossible to do what they asked within those 14 days - I no longer had the evidence and it was too expensive to print off the statements. They then extended the deadline by another 14 days which was again not long enough.
So knowing that it was impossible for me to do what they asked of me it was inevitable that the PC would be curtailed. At that point I was getting totally stressed and upset. I just did what they were going to do in any event - hence I closed the claim.
It has never been a question of not paying them what they are owed. Many times I have said so in letters sent to them. 
What was at the time prior to closing the claim was that no matter how many letters I sent them I still have not received one reply. It was as though they had no intention of helping me find a way through the issues I faced.

racyguy

Just finished with a telephone call from DWP Debt in Bradford. They agreed with my letter saying that the expected £110 was far too high and accepted my offer of £25 every 4 weeks! Talk about trying it on.

racyguy

Next job tomorrow is to contact the Council and tell them that they have 'zero' chance of us paying £220 a month. They will be asked to let us know how they think we can pay it. Got no chance in us making a claim for another means tested benefit given the experience we have had so far with PC.
 

poppy123456

racyguy said:

Got no chance in us making a claim for another means tested benefit given the experience we have had so far with PC.
 

There are no other means tested benefits you can claim anyway, other than the ones you were previously claiming.

I definitely wouldn't advise you to not pay your council tax.

racyguy

poppy123456 said:

 

There are no other means tested benefits you can claim anyway, other than the ones you were previously claiming.

I definitely wouldn't advise you to not pay your council tax.

It's not a question of not wanting to pay it's more a case of not being able to do so.
With our income down by £50 a week that is why I am going to ask the council how they could suggest I pay the Council Tax. - there is little spare money in the pot. Maybe we should stop eating or keeping warm? It will be interesting to see what they can suggest. Or maybe they would suggest us getting more benefit money from the state via Council Tax Support - another means tested benefit that comes with the same problems I have had with the Pension Service since 2010! 
By the way, in telling the DWP debt office that she would suspend her SRP was a bluff but they didn't know that. We could not afford to lose her income hence why I had the repayments cut from £110 to £25 every 4 weeks.

poppy123456

I’m sorry but you’re moaning about the money you have to pay for your council tax but if you don’t claim the benefit you will have no option but to pay. 

You’re moaning about the loss of the PC yet you cancelled your claim… I have nothing further to add here because words fail me. 

calcotti

racyguy said:

By the way, in telling the DWP debt office that she would suspend her SRP was a bluff but they didn't know that. We could not afford to lose her income 

Which was exactly why I said it was a bizarre suggestion which you then denied!

racyguy

poppy123456 said:

I’m sorry but you’re moaning about the money you have to pay for your council tax but if you don’t claim the benefit you will have no option but to pay. 

You’re moaning about the loss of the PC yet you cancelled your claim… I have nothing further to add here because words fail me. 

I fully agree with you. But the claiming of Council Tax Support involves sending in the information that the DWP are wanting - bank statements, the printing of which are prohibitive from the costs point of view. Surely there must be an alternative?
As for cancelling the PC claim, this was inevitable as per their last letter from the compliance officer, I just beat them to it. There was no point in having the claim suspended by them as I would have been in the same financial position as I am now - no Pension Credit being paid. Having already been through this same exact scenario 10 years ago. Then they allowed the suspension to continue for 28 days before it was terminated by them for failing to supply information that I could not supply at the time. It would have been available some months down the line but not then.

Legalised blackmail with no alternative options being given to me to resolve the case.

racyguy

poppy123456 said:

I’m sorry but you’re moaning about the money you have to pay for your council tax but if you don’t claim the benefit you will have no option but to pay. 

You’re moaning about the loss of the PC yet you cancelled your claim… I have nothing further to add here because words fail me. 

I should also have mentioned that following the original being terminated by the DWP, the question of Council Tax Benefit was resolved quickly. A Council Visiting Officer came to see me without me requesting such a visit and we sat down together looking at all of the information they required both in paper form as well as on the computer. 
The council now state that they no longer offer that service and that everything should be carried out on line.

calcotti

racyguy said: The council now state that they no longer offer that service and that everything should be carried out on line.

Unfortunately that's the way everything has gone. Just finding a phone is a challenge in many cases.