Widowed mother may have to drop her studies as the DWP seeks to claw back its overpayments
A PhD student has been told by Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) the she owes more than £17,000 in overpaid benefits because of mistakes it made when assessing her claim for universal credit.
Vikki Reid, who is in her mid-3os and widowed with an eight-year-old child, applied for the benefit when she started her research in 2019. She supplied full details of her course and the stipend she had been granted by the university, and had no reason to believe anything was wrong when she was told she was entitled to receive £1,316 a month. She lives in Cornwall where rents are high, so her application included help with her housing costs.
