The level of discretion when applying UC deduction
Dear Department for Work and Pensions,
The Benefit Overpayment Recovery Guide v3.10 (April 2023) Chapter 8 sets out the circumstances in which the SSWP will exercise his discretion not to recovery an overpayment.
Paragraph 8.2 BORG states “Discretion can be considered at any point in the debt journey which could be either when an overpayment is first discovered and before it is notified to the claimant…”.
Paragraph 8.3, first bullet point, states that “the Secretary of State discretion may be applied…. [w]here the Secretary of State does not consider that any action to recover the debt is warranted on cost grounds e.g., small overpayments (SMOP). Para 2.16-2.18 applies. This would result in the entire debt being written off.”
1. Please confirm in what circumstances the SSWP will apply his discretion to not recover an overpayment before it is notified to the claimant (as per para 8.2 BORG) other than the circumstances set out in paragraph 8.3 BORG, first bullet (i.e. SMOP written off on costs grounds) and other than as a result of the application for a waiver.
2. Please provide any policy or guidance documents governing the exercise of the SSWP discretion in these circumstances.
3. Please confirm how many times this discretion to not recover an overpayment before it is notified to the claimant has been used in the last three years (calendar or financial, whichever is more convenient) both for
(a) overpayments within the Small Overpayment Limit
(a) overpayments above the Small Overpayment Limit.
4. When an overpayment is identified, how automatised is the process of applying the deduction? In other words, is there a decision maker, or does a computer automatically action the deduction of an identified overpayment?
In case this request exceeds the cost limit under Section 12 of the FoI Act, please prioritise question 4, followed by 3, 2 and 1 (reverse order).
Yours faithfully,
Jagna Olejniczak
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Dear Jagna Olejniczak,
I am writing in response to your request for information, received 13th
June.
Yours sincerely,
DWP Central FoI Team
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