Benefit overpayments
The DWP is likely to try to take court action to recover a benefit overpayment within the following time limits.
If the DWP has decided that the overpayment should be recovered from a client, it has 20 years from the date of the decision to recover the overpayment and enforce it.1 If the DWP assess that the client has been overpaid a benefit, but has not yet decided that it should be recovered via court action from the client, it has five years from the date it assessed that the benefit was overpaid to decide this. If it decides it should be recovered before the five years has expired, it then has 20 years to recover the overpayment.
This is a complicated area and advisers may need specialist help to check whether an overpayment can still be recovered from a client.
Advisers should also be mindful of the DWP’s ability to recover all overpayments without going to court through direct deductions and direct earnings attachments.