BENEFITS
‘I’m literally left with nothing to live on’: DWP mistakes leave benefit claimants facing debt worth hundreds of millions
The government is seizing back hundreds of millions from benefits claimants each year to rectify its own mistakes, plunging some of the most vulnerable people in the country into debt, leaving them “devastated” and “with nothing to live on”.
And in some cases, even the allegations of debt are incorrect.
A single mother who spoke to The Big Issue was falsely accused of owing the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) more than £12,000.
Penny Davis was told she had been paid too much in universal credit and had to return that money to the DWP or it would be deducted from her wages. In reality, the DWP actually owed her more than £2,000, which she is yet to receive.
“I’m absolutely devastated. It changed everything for me,” Davis said. “Getting that letter and thinking that I’d have to pay that back made me very fearful of ever claiming again.”
It comes amid renewed outrage around the Post Office scandal, another example of a powerful public body wrongly accusing innocent people of owing huge amounts of money.
Benefit claimants expected to pick up the tab
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) overpaid £8.3 billion to benefit claimants between April 2022 and 2023. Although alleged fraud accounted for £6.5bn of this, many people face debt because of mistakes made by the DWP.
The department has admitted
