ESA overpayment /occ pension / civil penalty

Have been contacted by ESA saying I’ve been overpaid & have been given a civil penalty fine on top, of £50! Since been medically retired (over 10 years) I have received employment pension, ESA & PIP. They sent a very derogatory letter implying I’ve purposely not informed them of changes, but not saying what these were. I rang them, they said I haven’t informed them my pension has increased? I’ve never done this, as they have access to same system as HMRC so know how much I am receiving?! This is how they know it’s increased in the first place? I’m going to have to log a reconsideration. Anybody else had this experience/ got any advice?

Hi N

I am very sorry to hear of your predicament. It doesn't give me any pleasure to say this but its most unwise to assume that because different Goverment departments, or even different sections within a department,, may "talk" to one another that you as a claimant don't have to contact the appropriate department or section yourself to notify of a material change of circumstances..

I give a different example from yours to illustrate what can happen, This has long since been resolved but a friend of mine once made a mistake regarding how much she could earn before it affected her Carers Allowance. This went on for a couple of years but then she received a letter from the DWP along the lines of ""It has come to our notice that you have not told us of any earning over [whatever the amount was]..."and this had created an overpayment of several THOUSAND pounds which would of course have to be repaid! Now whilst I can't be sure I suspect that HMRC told DWP but don't do so on ongoing basis. My friend has lond since repaid the money in instalments. As far as I'm aware a penalty wasn't imposed in her case but I'm not sure of that. I'm not sure what a mandatory reconsideration would achieve in your case. I'm afraid that,, like my friend,,you'll have to repay the money. Y ou may be able to negotiate a manageable repayment plan with the DWP. You might be able to challenge the imposition of the civil penalty however I would not be optimistic that this would succeed.

I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news but hope that you'll be able to sort something out re all this. Good luck!

Kind regards

Mr B

Hi again N!

Further to my initial reply it occurred to me to check what the DWP itself says about what changes ESA claimants need to report. I too am on ESA and have been so since, if my memory serves me correctly, 2013. Whilst I haven't now got the leaflets that they put in with certain letters they send to ESA claimants for previous years I HAVE got the leaflet they sent recently with my annual ESA "uprating" letter. It is entitled "ESA Reporting changes." Under a section entitled "Changes to income and benefits" it says - amongst other things - "Tell us if you or anyone who lives with you:

starts getting, stops getting, or has a change to the amount of pensions received."

This , of course, is entirely consistent with what Gordon has said. Whilst I can't be certain, as I don't have them now, I would expect that ESA leaflets in previous years would also have this information.

Kind regards

Mr B

You have an obligation to inform esa of any change in your private pension even though the have been informed by hmrc and quite often esa know before your pension provider inform you.
It happened to me last year.
I received a derogatory letter from them but they were informed of the change before I was.
I think it triggered them reassessing me for esa but thankfully I remained in the cb support group.