DWP Universal Credit refund warning as people | European Markets

The Division for Work and Pensions (DWP) says people on Common Credit score might declare a refund. Those that had been handed a Hardship Cost from the welfare scheme between January 1, 2014, and January 11, 2021, could now be eligible for a refund and are being urged to get in contact with the DWP to re-evaluate their repayments earlier than the Might 4, 2025 deadline.

The DWP made it identified, saying: “This scheme is for people who received a Recoverable Hardship Payment from Universal Credit. Hardship payments provide financial protection for customers whose benefit is reduced by a sanction or a fraud loss of benefit penalty.”

People can declare a refund if the DWP beforehand dismissed their plea to pause repayments. These fighting the method can search steering via the helpline offered at 0800 158 5557, the Each day Report experiences. To be thought of for a halt on reimbursement calls for by the DWP, candidates should fulfill all mandatory situations and current convincing proof gathered on the time they initially sought hardship aid:

• between January 1, 2014 and January 11, 2021 you requested Common Credit score or DWP Debt Administration to waive the reimbursement of a hardship fee, or rethink the speed of restoration, and
• DWP refused your request or refused to contemplate the request
• you might not afford to repay the hardship fee at that time, or
• it had a important impact on the time in your or your loved ones’s health or wellbeing – which means that it triggered a health situation or made a health situation worse

Any claims ought to be registered by way of the official GOV.UK type right here and have to be lodged by no later than Might 4, 2025.

Among the many potential proof you might present are: incapacity to repay your hardship fee, impression of the hardship fee in your or your loved ones’s health or wellbeing, financial data from the time reminiscent of bank statements, loan info, or letters from collectors, and medical documentation indicating that reimbursement worsened a health situation. You will additionally need to supply particulars about your income and residing bills on the time.

Even when you do not have all this info, you may nonetheless apply. Nonetheless, official steering means that offering as a lot info as potential will help your utility. It’s also possible to write a letter addressing the shape’s questions and ship it together with the shape and different mandatory paperwork to: Freepost DWP UNIVERSAL CREDIT FULL SERVICE. Complete details about the Hardship Cost refund may be discovered on GOV.UK right here.