How to reclaim the overpaid benefits
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The Public Accounts Committee of the House of Commons has this week launched a stinging attack on the government because of its consistent overpaying of benefits and inability to then reclaim the money.
The committee’s figures show that benefit claimants owe £1.85bn in overpayments but the government is recovering less than £300m a year. The public accounts committee is urging the Department for Work and Pensions to significantly improve its efforts to recover the money.
A damning illustration of how serious the situation has become is that more than 30,000 people owe at least £10,000.
Although the committee said that the DWP is gradually improving its debt recovery procedures, the total debt is continuing to rise because overpayments are still larger than repayments.
The situation is also likely to have worsened because of the recession, although the latest figures have not yet been released.
Income Support claims accounted for more than 70% of all debts. Meanwhile, £9.3m of overpayments of less than £65 were written off during 2007/08 because they were considered too small to justify the cost of recovering them.
The new report recommends using text messages, e-mails and phone calls to remind claimants they have to inform benefit offices of changes in their circumstances.
This story is, frankly, incredible. That the DWP overpays so many benefits is a national scandal in the first place, especially at a time when, because of soaring national debt, the government should be finding every way possible of cutting spending.
However, after having overpaid the benefits the government should be making every effort to ensure that it’s recovered. Stopping the further benefits of those who owe money seems a common sense approach to those who refuse to pay it back and, in the very worst cases, custodial sentences should be handed down. That should sharpen their minds a little.
