A DISTRAUGHT single mum has been told she must pay back more than £24,000 in Universal Credit payments after a DWP “error”.
Jane Wardle, 38, must repay the eye-watering sum of £24,805.15 after the government department said she should never have been entitled to the benefit.
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Universal Credit is a welfare scheme which was designed to combine several of the old “legacy benefits” into a single monthly payment.
Whether you are eligible depends on your specific circumstances, but you can usually claim if you’re on a low income or out of work.
Jane, who lives in Darlington, County Durham with her 13-year-old daughter Ela, was told she would have to pay back all of the money that she owed in monthly instalments.
She took the matter to an independent tribunal in December last year, but, unfortunately, her appeal was unsuccessful.
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Jane started studying for a funded social sciences PhD at Teeside University in October 2020 and applied for Universal Credit to support her and her daughter throughout her studies.
Her main source of income was a stipend – a non-repayable grant provided to doctoral students – worth £1,270 a month.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) told Jane she was entitled to just over £800 a month in Universal Credit.
In April 2023, Jane told the DWP that she planned to reduce her PhD hours to part-time after struggling to cope with her Fibromyalgia – a long-term health condition that causes pain all over the body.
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The mum-of-one also wanted more flexibility to support Ella, who was having difficulties transitioning to secondary school.
In June, Jane received a letter through her online journal informing her that her entitlement had been calculated incorrectly and that she needed to repay the amount in full.
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In a letter seen by The Sun, the DWP said an “official error” had been made.
All of her payments were stopped immediately, and her stipend had also reduced to just £736 due to going part-time with her studies.
This left Jane with just enough to cover her rent of £490 a month and meant she barely had enough cash leftover to pay for food and bills.
Jane said: “I have no idea what I’m going to do, my life has been completely turned upside down.
“If I was earning the amount I was getting from the PhD doing any other job, I would be entitled to Universal Credit – and that is where the injustice lies.
“It’s just the stress of it all. I’ve worked hard at university to get to where I am and I want to provide a good life for my daughter and be a good example.
“But I now have an almost £25,000 debt hanging over me for the rest of my life.
“I’m just a single mum trying to better myself doing a PhD.”
Jane has now gone back to studying full-time and has had to take on a part-time cleaning job, which she said leaves her “exhausted” due to her Fibromyalgia.
She doesn’t know how long she’ll be paying it back for yet but the repayment periods for such large amounts can often be 10 years or more.
Overpayment errors can occur in situations like Jane’s because PhD funding isn’t treated as income in the same way that other earnings are, according to charity Single Parents Rights.
However, sometimes cases can be overturned by appealing them.
Mum-of-three and PhD student Penny Davies won her battle with the DWP after being told she owed £12,000.
After launching a successful appeal, the DWP admitted she hadn’t been overpaid and was actually owed £2,000 in arrears.
Ruth Talbot, the founder of Single Parent Rights, said: “These cases of overpayment demands are shocking.
“The first single parents usually hear about the debt is when a letter demanding thousands of pounds lands on their doorstep.
“People simply don’t have the money to pay these back and facing years of deductions from their benefits means families are left struggling indefinitely.”
Ruth said that many of the cases the charity hears about are single mums studying for PhDs.
She added: “Instead of being able to improve their families’ lives by bettering their career prospects, official errors by the DWP are pushing families into turmoil – families like Jane and her daughter.
“The rules need to change so that single parents studying for PhDs are able to access Universal Credit support so they aren’t left penny pinching when all they are trying to do is improve things for their family.”
In a statement, the DWP said Universal Credit overpayments due to official errors – including the one experienced by Jane – are currently at 0.6% – its lowest ever.
A DWP spokesperson said: “We carefully balance our duty to the taxpayer to recover overpayments and safeguards are in place to help people manage repayments.”
Jane is now working with a lawyer and hopes to challenge the result of her tribunal in the future.
What if I’m asked to repay money and it wasn’t my fault?
If the DWP believes you have been overpaid a benefit, it will write to you detailing what happened and how much you owe.
You can ask it to reassess your case if you don’t agree with its decision.
In your response, ask how it made its decision, as well as for a “mandatory reconsideration”.
You should then get another letter with the outcome of the reconsideration.
If you still don’t agree, you can appeal the decision at a tribunal.
You can also make a complaint about the customer service you receive from the department.
Say you’re making a formal complaint and ask to initiate its complaints procedure, either in writing or over the phone.
A complaint resolution manager should look at your case and issue a final response.
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It’s a good idea to keep hold of any correspondence when you make a benefit claim in case you have any issues down the track.
For example, if there is an error and you spot it, make sure to raise it with the relevant department and keep a record of this correspondence.
Do you have a money problem that needs sorting? Get in touch by emailing [email protected].
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