Repayment of Husbands SW overpayment

tigerlillie

Any advice would be grateful. I am due three weeks of FIS €148.00x3 from the time it was being processed. My FIS was granted from 29th October but only received my first payment on the 19th November so hence the three weeks. Up until the 20th December I have been emailing the FIS office to ascertain when the arrears would be discharged to me but didnt hear back from them until my husband received a letter stating that he owed the department €57.64 for a overpayment from 2001 (12 YEARS) and that they proposed to take it out of my FIS arrears within 21 days and attached a form for me to sign.

My issues with this is I am only married since the 15th November of this year and was not even with my husband when this overpayment occured.

I emailed the man who wrote to me as soon as I received this letter and the response i got from him was for my husband to take it up with the local SW office and for me to take it up with FIS. With Christmas and with offices being closed we got into the SW office this morning and they rang him who basically told him that it was coming out and there was nothing we could do and it was not appealable. I emailed him this afternoon and told him to reconsider this as this was alot of money for us to lose in one go and pleaded with him to consider taking a small amount out of my husbands jobseekers benefit each week. He emailed me back a 4pm this evening stating that he had of this morning deducted the amount and has sent the rest through for payment.

mrsbyrne

Sorry your so disappointed tigerlilly.
You will have to let it go.
What you are asking SW to do is impossible. As a family you owe the State that money. The fact that you didn't know your husband when they overpaid him is not relevant. That money must be paid in full before any arrears are paid to you.
As mentioned on another thread here you should consider yourself lucky its not Revenue you owe because they would be charging penalties and all sorts.

donegal11

How long was he claiming JB, could his claim initiated a review of his and hence your payment reduction?

tigerlillie

donegal11 wrote: »

How long was he claiming JB, could his claim initiated a review of his and hence your payment reduction?

His claim was for an overpayment of three days 12 years ago when he was married before he did pay some of it back but then he started working - 5 years ago he went back on Jobseekers for one year before starting a CE scheme for 4 years and then he went back on Jobseekers in October so they have had ample time to seek the remainder I dont think it is fair or right to take it off my arrears

donegal11

Regarding the family being liable if someone was to die and overpayment existed would it be claimed on spouse or rest with the estate?

mrsbyrne

tigerlillie wrote: »

His claim was for an overpayment of three days 12 years ago when he was married before he did pay some of it back but then he started working - 5 years ago he went back on Jobseekers for one year before starting a CE scheme for 4 years and then he went back on Jobseekers in October so they have had ample time to seek the remainder I dont think it is fair or right to take it off my arrears

Which of you is the FIS claimant?
Actually, it doesn't matter. SW see you, your OH and kid/s as a single unit. If he owes it, then you all owe it. That's how it works.
Its not a case of somebody in SW "deciding" that you would have to pay it back like this. There are rules and regulations laid down in law which must be adhered to.
Look at it this way. If you got your payslip on Friday and you were Euro 58 short, what would you do? You'd goin the office at work to query it.
If the boss then came out and said "Sorry Tigerlillie we made a clerical error. We owe you 58 but we can only give it back to you 2 Euro per week!" What would you think of that?

sligoface

I was overpaid and paid back a tenner a week, I don't see why they had to do it that way and take the fll amount, other than they guy isd trying to make a name for himself at work or something.

sligoface

mrsbyrne wrote: »

Which of you is the FIS claimant?
Actually, it doesn't matter. SW see you, your OH and kid/s as a single unit. If he owes it, then you all owe it. That's how it works.
Its not a case of somebody in SW "deciding" that you would have to pay it back like this. There are rules and regulations laid down in law which must be adhered to.
Look at it this way. If you got your payslip on Friday and you were Euro 58 short, what would you do? You'd goin the office at work to query it.
If the boss then came out and said "Sorry Tigerlillie we made a clerical error. We owe you 58 but we can only give it back to you 2 Euro per week!" What would you think of that?

Bad analogy. People trying to raise children on SW schemes are a lot more vulnerable than a business that can afford to hire people and pay wages, don't you think?

And you are wrong, there is no rule or regulation saying they have to take it in one deduction, in fact on welfare.ie it states the opposite, they cannot leave you with too little money to live on when they deduct for overpayment. The guy the OP's dealing with is being a bit of a bully because he figures she has little recourse to fight it.

Balagan

The Dept has the option of recovering debts through various methods. The lump sum recovery would be more likely where arrears were due to the claimant.
http://www.welfare.ie/en/Pages/Overpayment-Recovery---Guidelines-on-the-Recovery-of-Debt-by.aspx

wmpdd3

This seems to be standard practice now, every arrears payment seems to be subject to an investigation to see if there is any overpayment due.

best to just accept it.

I think its a mess that the revenue does not recognise people living together as a family unit but the social welfare does. this mean allot more tax is paid than should be.

tigerlillie

mrsbyrne wrote: »

Sorry your so disappointed tigerlilly.
You will have to let it go.
What you are asking SW to do is impossible. As a family you owe the State that money. The fact that you didn't know your husband when they overpaid him is not relevant. That money must be paid in full before any arrears are paid to you.
As mentioned on another thread here you should consider yourself lucky its not Revenue you owe because they would be charging penalties and all sorts.

Mrs Byrne what I am annoyed about is the fact that my husband offered to pay it back on a weekly amount being agreed to but Mr. G in SW office was not hearing anything he was a bully and treated me very unfairly. Seeing you like examples here is one for you. Lets say you take out a loan for €100.00 12 years ago and forget to pay it back. Will the bank take you to court or your husband and children. I think we know the answer to that. There is a six year limit to claim back money that is owed to you in law and the sw is a law all on to themselves

mrsbyrne

Yes tigerlillie s I've already said SW DOES have all its own laws and statutes. If you go to the welfare website and check out the operational guidelines of any particular scheme you can clearly see where it can be found on the statute book.
You can't compare non payment of a loan with an overpayment of SW.
In my experience if an overpayment has taken place it will deducted from arrears 100% of the time.
If your husbands overpayment has nothing to do with your arrears then why did you think you had to supply all his details on the FIS form?

LegacyUser

tigerlillie wrote: »

Mrs Byrne what I am annoyed about is the fact that my husband offered to pay it back on a weekly amount being agreed to but Mr. G in SW office was not hearing anything he was a bully and treated me very unfairly. Seeing you like examples here is one for you. Lets say you take out a loan for €100.00 12 years ago and forget to pay it back. Will the bank take you to court or your husband and children. I think we know the answer to that. There is a six year limit to claim back money that is owed to you in law and the sw is a law all on to themselves

absolutely pointless comparing a bank loan with a DSP payment,they are in no way similar.DSP have operational guidelines on every scheme and it is signed into legislation .
AFAIK DSP can take 15% of any arrears owed without notifying the customer.FIS took about 13%.Don't see why you think you were bullied or treated unfairly ,money was owed and has been recovered .

Tasden

FIS is a payment made to a family based on your family circumstances, your husband is part of the claim therefore any arrears your husband owes (regardless of whether you knew him or not) must be paid by him, in this case by you as a family. From arrears they will take a certain amount in a lump sum, from weekly payments they must ensure that your income does not fall below the maximum supplementary welfare allowance applicable to your family circumstances. If you feel you were treated badly by staff in the office you can complain but rules are rules as far as the overpayment goes.