Overpayment of Contribution Based ESA anguish

I have Primary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis and lost my job in 2019. I started to receive Contribution Based ESA a few months later and placed in the support group because of the progressing disability. I subsequently was divorced by my wife and was left alone.

Five years on the DWP has contacted me to say I had been overpaid and are asking for £5600 to be repaid. This was apparently due to 2 small private pensions amounting to £200 a month and I had not told them. They were visible on my online hmrc account so I had assumed they knew about them.

As my MS progressed it affected my cognition more and more so it never came in my mind about any of that. I am in a desperate position as this will be the end of me. I’m alone and have no money like that. I am having a mandatory reconsideration in next 7 days and my experience of them and what I’ve heard is that they never go the right way. I’m desperate and have no one to help me. I’ve spoken to CAB but they were of little help.

Why have the dwp left it 5 years to hit me with this? This is wrong can you please help? I also get PIP at enhanced rate for both mobility and daily living. I am not sleeping and my MS is taking over

I wonder if this has occurred due to the DWP having issues with their IT system. I am on contributions-based ESA and have a small pension. In the autumn I had problems with missing or late payments. It took the DWP until January to resolve this issue by moving some of my files to the archive.

They made an error when they rebuilt my claim. This resulted in an overpayment of about £13 a month. I contacted them by phone and was assured it was right. It took two letters and three phone calls for them to get back to me and resolve the issue.

This may have come to light just now as they are rebuilding a lot of legacy claims due to issues with the IT system.

In this case, it was an official error and I didn't have to pay back the overpayment. It would be worth double-checking that you have not let them know at some point. I have significant cognitive issues too and I have to file every letter and log every phone call with the DWP.

When I got a phone call last week the caller questioned me about every annual increase in my pension for eight years. Thankfully I had the paperwork to hand to say that due to my cognitive issues I had given them continuous authority to check that themselves. Immediately the caller lost interest and said 'I am sure it will be'. It might be worth asking why they didn't give you this option.