Owing Money to Welfare

yomamma

Hi,

When I started a new job I contiued to collect social welfare until my first pay check arrived... I now owe the social welfare just over 800 euro.... I have been receiving letters asking me to pay this amount back.... I am not on great wages and will find this hard to pay back in large amounts..... I am thinking of just ignoring the letters. Sure if comes to worst I can just claim that I have moved address since starting this job and that I have never seen letters asking me to pay this back...

My question is though.... If I was to approach the social welfare and offered to pay them 5 euro per week back would this be accepted? If not I wont approach them as it will bring me further to their attention rather than them just forgetting about me..

Thanks

uck51js9zml2yt

If you dont pay them it will need to be repaid before they pay you any social welfare in the future.
Dont ignore the letters. You shouldnt have continued to claim while working.
Give them a call and arrange a payment plan.
They may want proof of your earnings and outgoings to decide how much you can afford to pay them back per week.

Dont forget the job may not become permanent and you may need to avail of social welfare payments again so a quick repayment is in your interests. €5 a week will be 160 weeks or over 3 years.

Gatling

No point burying your head in the sand and trying to ignore it ,welfare just dont give up and forget about it we've had posters having got caught over claiming from ten years previously ,
They can even get you when you eventually try to collect your pension or through a partners payment

yomamma

Lisa Muscular Supplement wrote: »

If you dont pay them it will need to be repaid before they pay you any social welfare in the future.
Dont ignore the letters. You shouldnt have continued to claim while working.
Give them a call and arrange a payment plan.
They may want proof of your earnings and outgoings to decide how much you can afford to pay them back per week.

Dont forget the job may not become permanent and you may need to avail of social welfare payments again so a quick repayment is in your interests. €5 a week will be 160 weeks or over 3 years.

Thanks for reply... I had to still get my welfare payments as I had no other way of living or paying rent until my first pay cheque from new job was in.... I informed this to welfare as soon as I started my new job... I was looking to get money off the community welfare officer but it never came to plan .... They were aware that I was in a new job but My money was still available for collection until next sign on date were I didnt sign on.

I dont plan to be on social welfare anymore in future as my new job is a secure public sector job.

I dont mind it taking three years to pay back at 5 euro per week. The question is will they accept that? I dont want to offer this and it end up with them refusing me and bringing me further to their attention.. On the other hand I could just ignore them... For all I they know I could have moved address and never seen letters from them in first place

uck51js9zml2yt

yomamma wrote: »

Thanks for reply... I had to still get my welfare payments as I had no other way of living or paying rent until my first pay cheque from new job was in.... I informed this to welfare as soon as I started my new job... I was looking to get money off the community welfare officer but it never came to plan .... They were aware that I was in a new job but My money was still available for collection until next sign on date were I didnt sign on.

I dont plan to be on social welfare anymore in future as my new job is a secure public sector job.

I dont mind it taking three years to pay back at 5 euro per week. The question is will they accept that? I dont want to offer this and it end up with them refusing me and bringing me further to their attention.. On the other hand I could just ignore them... For all I they know I could have moved address and never seen letters from them in first place

You cant ignore it. They will ALWAYS locate you through your PPS Number.
I cant say if they'll accept €5 a week. THe only way to know is call them. €10 a week would be more in your interests to pay back. You'd just have to forgo an extra few cups of coffee!
You're in their sights so bin the idea of "further coming to their attention".

No job is secure for life, not even public sector. You;re on probation I assume so could be let go within that period very easily.

Squall Leonhart

Yes, but you'll never change PPSN. You can run but you cannot hide I'm afraid. This money will be paid back to the state you stole it from sooner or later.

I understand you were in a plight and made a decision at the time you felt was best for you, but actions have consequences.

Necro

yomamma wrote:

I dont plan to be on social welfare anymore in future as my new job is a secure public sector job.

This is going to be a serious problem with your current job if you don't contact them and try to make repayments. It's specifically in the guidelines that if a public sector worker attempts to defraud the state you will face disciplinary action up to and including dismissal. This was made abundantly clear to me at my induction training so you need to try and sort it.

cruizer101

You really need to pay them back and to be fair even if your on a low wage and taking account of added expense of traveling to work if you were getting by on just social welfare before it shouldn't be to hard to pay them back. Even on little over 20k you are getting twice what you would on basic social welfare.

tijuanaboozer

I would advise you to repay €20 per week. €5 is not enough because you are earning now.
You will be asked to justify why you cannot afford more than that.
Do you really want a repayment attachment on your wages or even a day in court?

granturismo

yomamma wrote: »

...
I dont plan to be on social welfare anymore in future as my new job is a secure public sector job...

You are probably still on probation so not permanent. Anything can happen to the economy, your department's finances, your job performance during your probation. In theory, job for life in the public sector is no longer a guarantee.

As others have said, you PPS number will always be linked to the money you continued to claim. They've asked for it to be repaid, they simply arent going to forget about it.

You need to contact them and arrange a repayment system.

If this was fraudulent, and lets say you are prosecuted - some public/civil service employees are required to inform their employer of any relevant convictions.

Squatter

yomamma wrote: »

Hi,

When I started a new job I contiued to collect social welfare until my first pay check arrived... I now owe the social welfare just over 800 euro.... I have been receiving letters asking me to pay this amount back.... I am not on great wages and will find this hard to pay back in large amounts..... I am thinking of just ignoring the letters. Sure if comes to worst I can just claim that I have moved address since starting this job and that I have never seen letters asking me to pay this back...

My question is though.... If I was to approach the social welfare and offered to pay them 5 euro per week back would this be accepted? If not I wont approach them as it will bring me further to their attention rather than them just forgetting about me..

Thanks

I agree with the good advice provided by other posters. Don't run away from this problem. The DSP would normally expect a repayment in the region of 10 to 15% of your net weekly income - so, bluntly, offering them a fiver a week won't do.

Why not write to them and explain that as you have a number of debts to repay from the period while you were unemployed, you're not in a position to repay more than (say) €50 per month. If you can, enclose a cheque for the first €50. That will deal with the matter for the time being, but you will need to keep on repaying. The DSP has a unit dedicated to chasing overpayments and they don't go away.

Another thing that you might want to think about is that, if you have collected a weekly welfare payment during this tax year and if you don't repay it by year-end then it will be reckonable as part of your income for 2016 so you may well be liable to pay income tax on it.

bottlebrush

yomamma wrote: »

Thanks for reply... I had to still get my welfare payments as I had no other way of living or paying rent until my first pay cheque from new job was in.... I informed this to welfare as soon as I started my new job... I was looking to get money off the community welfare officer but it never came to plan .... They were aware that I was in a new job but My money was still available for collection until next sign on date were I didnt sign on.

I dont plan to be on social welfare anymore in future as my new job is a secure public sector job.

I dont mind it taking three years to pay back at 5 euro per week. The question is will they accept that? I dont want to offer this and it end up with them refusing me and bringing me further to their attention.. On the other hand I could just ignore them... For all I they know I could have moved address and never seen letters from them in first place

If you get ill and can't work, don't forget you may need to claim illness or disability benefit....

Punkyblip

Say two and a half million people were overpaid €800 each, that would be two billion yoyos. And they each repay it at €5 per week :eek:

What a great country

yomamma

Ok Thanks guys for all info....

I will go down tomorrow and talk to them about it... I actually told them that I had started a new job one week in to employment. Its partially their fault that they never stopped my payments coming in.

Sometimes its just better to stay on the welfare..... I am only on 40 euro more now than what I was getting from them.. Got myself employment and now have to suffer the consequences for doing so....

Dodge

Punkyblip wrote: »

What a great country

It's one person, not 2.5 million and he's being advised to do it quicker. Not sure how you can extrapolate that out for a general whinge about Ireland?

charlietheminxx

yomamma wrote: »

Ok Thanks guys for all info....

I will go down tomorrow and talk to them about it... I actually told them that I had started a new job one week in to employment. Its partially their fault that they never stopped my payments coming in.

Sometimes its just better to stay on the welfare..... I am only on 40 euro more now than what I was getting from them.. Got myself employment and now have to suffer the consequences for doing so....

That's not a great attitude really is it? Plenty of people would love the extra €40 a week... And you're only starting off. Your salary will go up with time. You could avail of certain tax reliefs too... But if you owe money to revenue then that's just not going to happen.