Winter fuel blunder that saw government raid our pensions

MY HUSBAND and I each received a £300 winter fuel payment for 2017. The payment should be per household, so I knew we had been overpaid. We reported the error and each sent a cheque for £150 to the Department for Work and Pensions on December 15, 2017.

Months later, we received a letter from the debt management department chasing the overpayment. I made contact and was told that if our repayment couldn’t be found, I would have to supply bank statements.

I provided evidence that money had been sent, but was told I’d posted the cheques to the wrong place (I’d sent them to the address from which the payment came).

It has since deducted £44.40 per month from my pension for four months, and £46.70 from my husband’s, to ‘recover’ money we have already paid.

I have made numerous phone calls but cannot get this resolved. J. R., Devon.

The behaviour of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and its debt collector has been quite outrageous.

You spotted the error and immediately moved to sort it out. Your reward has been harassment for the better part of a year.

As for the suggestion that you sent money to the wrong address, that is utter nonsense.

You have as evidence a letter of receipt from DWP at the Dundee Pension Centre dated January 4, 2018. The letter not only acknowledges payment, but also includes a copy of the cheques. It is signed ‘J. Whyte, cashier/stockholder’.

When you sent this evidence to the debt management department, you did not receive the courtesy of a reply. You also made several phone calls and sent more letters, all to no avail.

Then, despite your protestations, it raided your pensions.

After I made contact, DWP apologised for the ‘unacceptable service’. It has sent a refund of the money that was deducted from your state pensions, plus an additional £50 to apologise for the poor service.

You have received a personal phone call and been given the number of someone to call if there are any further problems.

I HAD a HomeCare agreement with British Gas for several years, always paying by direct debit. In July, I received a renewal quote of £733.32 which I accepted.

I moved house in August and I was given a new quote of £372 for this address.

I assumed HomeCare would refund the difference, but the following month I received a letter indicating it was taking the £733.32 from my account.

When I checked my statement in October, I found that it had also taken £372 on October 8.

I have made three phone calls to HomeCare and on each occasion I have been promised a refund, but I have received nothing to date. E. S., Swindon.

ThIs is one of those occasions when I am forced to speculate because I have not received a sensible explanation of what went on from British Gas.

Your existing contract was due to renew from August. When you made contact after moving house, you not unnaturally assumed the new quote would replace the old one.

Instead, British Gas took your money twice. It has now refunded the larger payment.

so I am assuming that for the quote on your new home, it was treating you as a new customer, whereas for the higher quote, it was treating you as an existing customer.

You appear to have received a remarkable illustration of the cost of loyalty.

If I were you, I would argue very strongly next year, when your payment comes up for renewal, to make sure the bill doesn’t start creeping up again.

MY BROADBAND went down in December, but Virgin Media said there was nothing wrong.

The person from customer services passed me to a technical team which told me I would have to pay £25 and a small amount extra each month to put it right.

I had no intention of paying anything more than my current monthly bill.

A computer expert said there was nothing wrong with my computer and that the fault was with Virgin.

It cost me £40 to have my computer checked and I was quite annoyed.

I rang Virgin, but it was not willing to reimburse me. M. M., Kent.

VIrGIn Media insists there was no problem with its broadband service on the date you mention.

however, I was curious about your reference to the technical team as this sounded like a little bit of upselling to me.

Apparently, you were referred to Virgin’s Gadget rescue team, which is available through the payment of a monthly charge or a one-off fee to fix a device.

I don’t think we’ll ever get to the bottom of what went wrong. All I can say is that sometimes broadband, or more specifically the wi-fi connection within our homes, clogs up — apparently for no reason.

It may have been that you had just turned on your Christmas lights, it may have been interference from a neighbour’s broadband, or perhaps you just needed to turn everything off, let it rest, and turn it on again to clear the bottleneck.

In any case, Virgin Media, while emphasising there was no fault with its network or its equipment, has decided, as a gesture of goodwill, to reimburse the £40 you paid to have your computer examined.