Can DLA ask me to repay any potential overpayment

A few weeks ago, I sent a change of circumstances to the DLA informing them of an improvement in my health.
Approx 10 days later, I received a letter back from them telling me that they were looking at my case again and not to contact them unless 11 weeks had passed by.

I have also begun to work part time and have come off IB although I am struggling again with my health.

Can anyone shed any light on the reason for this as they are still paying my DLA at present and I don't want a big bill to repay.

Also, my wife whom was my carer informed the relevant department and they have asked her to repay £161.70 which she is going to do today.

I would be grateful for any advice in this regard.

Best regards to all

Linsky

linsky wrote:

A few weeks ago, I sent a change of circumstances to the DLA informing them of an improvement in my health.
Approx 10 days later, I received a letter back from them telling me that they were looking at my case again and not to contact them unless 11 weeks had passed by.

I have also begun to work part time and have come off IB although I am struggling again with my health.

Can anyone shed any light on the reason for this as they are still paying my DLA at present and I don't want a big bill to repay.

Also, my wife whom was my carer informed the relevant department and they have asked her to repay £161.70 which she is going to do today.

I would be grateful for any advice in this regard.

Best regards to all

Linsky

In the situation you describe, once you have reported the change of circumstances pertaining to an improvement in your health, you have fulfilled your obligations as a claimant. Unless you have reported a specific date as to when your health improved, your DLA award will normally be reduced/terminated from the date of notification.

I assume your wife was receiving Carers Allowance for you? If so, The normal procedure would have been to suspend the award until such time as the DLA unit had made a decision on your DLA claim, otherwise they will be pre-empting the status of your revised award which may remain unaltered, depending on the extent to which your health may have improved?

The CA unit have obviously taken it upon themselves to assume you will no longer be entitled to the higher/middle rate of the care component, hence the termination of the award, but unless they know something you don't, any alleged overpayment should not be recovered at this stage until a decision is made on your DLA claim.

Crazydiamond wrote:

linsky wrote:

A few weeks ago, I sent a change of circumstances to the DLA informing them of an improvement in my health.
Approx 10 days later, I received a letter back from them telling me that they were looking at my case again and not to contact them unless 11 weeks had passed by.

I have also begun to work part time and have come off IB although I am struggling again with my health.

Can anyone shed any light on the reason for this as they are still paying my DLA at present and I don't want a big bill to repay.

Also, my wife whom was my carer informed the relevant department and they have asked her to repay £161.70 which she is going to do today.

I would be grateful for any advice in this regard.

Best regards to all

Linsky

In the situation you describe, once you have reported the change of circumstances pertaining to an improvement in your health, you have fulfilled your obligations as a claimant. Unless you have reported a specific date as to when your health improved, your DLA award will normally be reduced/terminated from the date of notification.

I assume your wife was receiving Carers Allowance for you? If so, The normal procedure would have been to suspend the award until such time as the DLA unit had made a decision on your DLA claim, otherwise they will be pre-empting the status of your revised award which may remain unaltered, depending on the extent to which your health may have improved?

The CA unit have obviously taken it upon themselves to assume you will no longer be entitled to the higher/middle rate of the care component, hence the termination of the award, but unless they know something you don't, any alleged overpayment should not be recovered at this stage until a decision is made on your DLA claim.

CD, My wife rang the carers dept. to tell them that she was no longer caring for me. Is this the usual way that things should or would be dealt with in these circumstances?
Thanks

linsky wrote:

Crazydiamond wrote:

linsky wrote:

A few weeks ago, I sent a change of circumstances to the DLA informing them of an improvement in my health.
Approx 10 days later, I received a letter back from them telling me that they were looking at my case again and not to contact them unless 11 weeks had passed by.

I have also begun to work part time and have come off IB although I am struggling again with my health.

Can anyone shed any light on the reason for this as they are still paying my DLA at present and I don't want a big bill to repay.

Also, my wife whom was my carer informed the relevant department and they have asked her to repay £161.70 which she is going to do today.

I would be grateful for any advice in this regard.

Best regards to all

Linsky

In the situation you describe, once you have reported the change of circumstances pertaining to an improvement in your health, you have fulfilled your obligations as a claimant. Unless you have reported a specific date as to when your health improved, your DLA award will normally be reduced/terminated from the date of notification.

I assume your wife was receiving Carers Allowance for you? If so, The normal procedure would have been to suspend the award until such time as the DLA unit had made a decision on your DLA claim, otherwise they will be pre-empting the status of your revised award which may remain unaltered, depending on the extent to which your health may have improved?

The CA unit have obviously taken it upon themselves to assume you will no longer be entitled to the higher/middle rate of the care component, hence the termination of the award, but unless they know something you don't, any alleged overpayment should not be recovered at this stage until a decision is made on your DLA claim.

CD, My wife rang the carers dept. to tell them that she was no longer caring for me. Is this the usual way that things should or would be dealt with in these circumstances?
Thanks

Even though your wife rang the CA Unit informing them that she was no longer caring for you, the termination of the CA award is dependent on the termination of the DLA award.

It would appear that the CA Unit have jumped the gun, unless as I mentioned earlier, the DLA Unit have informed them of the date from which the change of circumstances has taken effect?

The only way to find out is to contact the DLA Unit at Blackpool for information.

Thanks for your reply CD. I was assuming that as my wife was now working and no longer caring for me, it would automatically exclude her to claim carer's allowance, even though I could have a different carer and if the award went unchanged, the other carer could then claim the carers rate. Is my thinking incorrect in this respect?
Best Regards

Linsky

linsky wrote:

Thanks for your reply CD. I was assuming that as my wife was now working and no longer caring for me, it would automatically exclude her to claim carer's allowance, even though I could have a different carer and if the award went unchanged, the other carer could then claim the carers rate. Is my thinking incorrect in this respect?
Best Regards

Linsky

As your wife is working she cannot get Carer's Allowance if she earns more than £100 a week after money has been taken off to allow for expenses.

Expenses that are allowed are for things like:

* some National Insurance (NI) contributions
* Income Tax
* half of any money she pays towards personal or occupational pension schemes
* other expenses she has to pay because they are a necessary part of your job

After allowing for these things, she would allowed up to half the rest of the money she earns to help meet the cost of paying someone else (but not a close relative) to look after you while she is at work.

If your wife is earning over £100 a week, she will not be entitled to CA at all and therefore the level of your DLA award would be irrelevant to the CA claim. In this situation, the CA award would be terminated as soon as the employment commenced.

Perhaps this is the reason for the overpayment?