Official errors led to more than 680,000 universal credit overpayments in 2023/24, which are either deducted from recipients’ benefits or incurred as debt.
The value of overpayments made in 2023/24 amounted to £494m, according to the DWP figures.
While overpayment debts can be waived, this occurred just 75 times last year – or in 0.01 per cent of cases – according to the data, which was obtained through Freedom of Information (FoI) laws.
Just 75 overpayment debts stemming from official errors were waived by the DWP last year
Universal credit claimant Mark Whittaker, 64, from Warrington, Cheshire, said the DWP overpaid him more than £1,600 after it failed to register his pension and savings, meaning he received more universal credit than he was eligible for.
“There was no negotiation,” he said. “I kept complaining about the situation, saying we shouldn’t have to pay it back because it was maladministration in the DWP.
He added: “The money is one thing. The emotional cost, priceless”.
“To further protect people, we have additional safeguards in place before any recovery action takes place,” they added.
The department did not clarify whether that meant the actual figure was higher or lower than that originally provided
‘Golden opportunity’ to prevent people falling into unfair debt
The Public Authorities (Fraud, Error, and Recovery) Bill, introduced into the Commons in January, will include measures to help prevent overpayments.
Ms Grahame said the bill offers ministers “a golden opportunity to prevent hundreds of thousands of people from being pushed into unfair debt by the DWP’s own error”.
Mr Whittaker acts as a carer for his wife, Cheryl, who has cancer (Photo: supplied)“This would mean they could only be recovered where the claimant could reasonably have been expected to realise that they had been overpaid,” Ms Grahame explained.
The maximum amount that can be deducted from universal credit standard allowance payments to repay debt was reduced to 15 per cent from 25 per cent as part of the reforms.
This led to around £8,000 in overpayments, which the DWP would deduct from her weekly benefits payments.
With the assistance of PLP, Jessica was able to get her overpayment debt waived by the DWP, but said that the incident caused her “enormous amount of stress” in the interim.
She also suffers from fibromyalgia, a chronic condition causing widespread pain, fatigue and sleep disturbances.
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Sumi Rabindrakumar, head of policy at the Trussell Trust, said its food banks “see how deductions from social security payments leave people unable to afford the essentials like food and bills”.
Proposing reforms to universal credit, Mr Young said writing off overpayment debts due to government error “would be a good place to start”.
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