Security guard is threatened with legal action over 2p debt

A SECURITY guard has called the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) “pathetic” after it threatened legal action against him over a 2p debt.

Damien Dove received a letter from the government department this week, informing him he owed the sum after they overpaid him for housing benefit.

Mr Dove, from West Rainton in Sunderland, says he only claimed the benefit once, over three years ago.

“I thought it was a joke until I contacted them. It would have cost them more to send me out the letter,” he told The Chronicle.

“They were quite serious about it over the phone and it says in the letter that further action will now be taken if I don’t pay.”

The DWP letter informed Mr Dove that he had until Aug 29 to pay or they would “consider further action”.

It even offered him the chance to pay the outstanding funds back in instalments if he could not “make the payment in full”.

“It just surprised me when I opened the letter and I was asking, are these people having a laugh? I have never known anyone get a letter demanding 2p. It’s just ridiculous.

“I haven’t collected social security for at least 10 years, I’ve worked all my life apart from a few months and I’m getting penalised for collecting a benefit for one week.”

The DWP said: “This was a debt owing to Mr Dove’s local authority; regulations require us to recover such debts when requested to and due to the automated nature of our systems the notification was generated without agent input. We supported Mr Dove, whose chosen payment method would’ve incurred a charge, by suggesting a free alternative.”