£44 benefit clawed back – 22 years after error
Officials pursue charity worker for overpayment made in 1994
PENNY-PINCHING governments often try to come up with ways of saving money in times of austerity.
But it seems British officials are resorting to extreme measures – and have started tracking down benefit overpayments from more than 20 years ago.
Bernie McCann, from Glasgow, opened his latest payslip to find a mysterious deduction of £44.75, marked as ‘normal rate direct earnings’.
After his employer told him to get in touch with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), he was stunned to find the money was taken due to an overpayment in his employment benefit – which he had claimed in 1994.
The 43-year-old said: ‘I had no idea what it was at first. Then when I found out I was astounded.
‘I received two payslips. There was a deduction described as “normal rate direct earnings” for the princely sum of £44.75. On inquiring what this was, firstly with my payroll department, I found that it was a one-time deduction made by the DWP.
‘It turns out that between the 10th of October and the 20th of October 1994 – 22 years ago – the “buroo” overpaid me on a giro.’
Mr McCann was 21 at the time of the payment and had been unem- ployed for three months while moving from a job as a catering steward to work in retail.
He believes that he was accidentally given the extra windfall when he started work as an assistant at the now-defunct More Store.
Although he called the situation Mr McCann, who now works as a team leader for a charity in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, said he was happy to repay the money.
He said: ‘I am more than happy to pay back what’s owed.
‘But at what cost? To pay someone in a government department to contact another department to find out where I work, then for them to contact my employer to give instruction to make the deduction.
‘I’m still a bit bemused by it all and I’m sure that facilitation cost more than £44.75 in hours worked.
‘It’s ludicrous the number of manhours that have been wasted.’
In 1994, the standard weekly unemployment benefit was £45.45 but because Mr McCann was younger than 25, he was entitled to slightly less.
Mr McCann continued: ‘They said I could contest it, but I said no. I’m happy to pay. I’ve spent my life working and I’ve built up a career for myself, so I can afford it.
‘At a time when we are being pushed to look down the back of our sofas to pay for the rising price of Marmite, we are not alone.
‘In the DWP office they must have really big sofas.’
In March it was revealed that more than 120,000 Scots on low incomes were facing demands to pay back thousands of pounds to the treasury, after mistakenly being overpaid tax credits.
Official figures from HM Revenue and Customs said £130million was overpaid to 123,500 people in the 2013-14 financial year.
A spokesman for the DWP said: ‘We have a responsibility to the taxpayer to recover overpayments in benefits, even where these date back a number of years.’
The spokesman urged people who think they have been overpaid to contact the DWP immediately.
‘Ludicrous number of man-hours’