Overpayment Waiver Request

Overpayment waiver request

Name
Address
Postcode
Date
Tel No (s)
National Insurance No
To DWP
Address
Postcode

Dear Sir or Madam

Further to your letter advising me about an overpayment of £[amount] of [benefit name]. I am writing to request that the Secretary of State waives recovery of this overpayment. Under S71 Social Security Administration Act 1992 overpayments of benefit are “recoverable”. This confers a discretion on the Secretary of State to waive recovery in particular cases and therefore according to administrative law principles, each case should be looked at individually and there should not be blanket rules about how discretion will or won’t be applied.

DWP Guidance on waiving recovery is set out in Section 12 of the Overpayment Recovery Guide, though this does not list all the circumstances where, legally, recovery could be waived.

The following facts are relevant in this case:

[Delete those which are not relevant]

1. Recovery of this debt could affect my health of myself or that of a family member [details]

2. Recovery could affect my welfare or that of a family member [details]

3. Recovery would affect my caring responsibilities [details]

4. The net loss to public funds is less than the amount of the overpayment and the overpayment should be reduced accordingly [details]

5. I have other debts and recovery will seriously worsen my financial situation with the following consequences [details]

6. Recovery would make it uneconomic for me to take up or stay in paid work [details]

7. It would not be cost effective to recover this overpayment (ORG para 21.2 9a) [details]

8. Other circumstances [details]

Please send a copy of your decision to my representative:

Name
Organisation
Address
Postcode
Tel No(s)
Fax
Email

Yours faithfully

…………………………….

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