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Need advice regarding DWP/Budgeting Loan.

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  • Need advice regarding DWP/Budgeting Loan.

    Hi everyone,


    I am in a really stressful situation with the DWP regarding a budgeting loan, I am in serious need of advice. I will try and keep this as simple as possible


    I am on Universal credits and In May 2016 I had a budgeting loan of £348 from them. This was being paid back at £29 per month directly from my universal credits.


    Last week my cooker broke, and I have no means of replacing it, so I contacted universal credits and asked them if i could pay back the outstanding loan amount in order to obtain another loan (They do not allow you to obtain more than one loan at a time) the outstanding amount was £87.


    On Thursday January 12th I phoned the DWP debt management and spoke to a Lady about it, she agreed that the outstanding amount was £87 and took the full payment from me. I was told that by Monday, or Tuesday at the latest that I would be eligible for a new loan amount of £348 (I confirm this with universal credits)


    So this morning (Monday 16th January) I rang the universal credits to ask them if the £87 had been cleared from the budgeting loan. I was told then that it had not yet appeared on their system. So I phoned the DWP debt management again to ask them if they had received the £87 (I knew they should have as it had updated on my bank account, on my statement it reads DWP Debt management Salford GB) I was told that they had received the money and that they were sending an email instantly to the universal credits to let them know that the money had been received.


    I left it an hour or so, called the universal credits again, and was told again that the debt was still there, and they had not received any emails.


    I then again called the debt management team, and was at this point told that my £87 had been paid toward a debt that I apparently have with working tax credits. I am not aware of any debt with working tax credits. I told them that I was not aware of this debt, and they told me that they had only just been informed of this themselves - and that in fact this debt goes back to 2010.


    At this point I explained that the £87 I paid was intended to pay back the balance on the budgeting loan, due to needing a new cooker. I asked for an explanation as to why the person I spoke to on Thursday would accept my payment for 1 thing, and then put it toward another. He explained that as the working tax credit debt is the oldest debt I have in their system - it automatically goes toward that.


    They have now informed me that they are going to move the £87 payment from the working tax credit debt and put it on my budgeting loan debt to clear it. I have now been told that this may take 2 weeks to complete as they are backlogged by 2 weeks due to Christmas.


    I have no idea why I was told today that the payment had gone through, and an email had been sent - this clearly wasn't true.


    The £348 that I should have got today was going to pay for a new cooker, plus pay myself back the £87 to buy a weeks shopping/ gas and electric. As it stands at the moment I have very little food, not much gas/electric and no cooker.


    As this is their mistake, I am wondering if there is anyway I may be able to get them to issue me with that £348 tomorrow? I don't know if I have any rights to do this?


    Any advice at all would be amazing.
    Tags: None

  • #2
    Re: Need advice regarding DWP/Budgeting Loan.

    I'm not sure about getting the DWP to pay the advance tomorrow, but have you heard of the "Furniture Re-use Network (http://www.frn.org.uk/donate.html)? You might be able to get a free/cheap cooker from them xx
    Debt is like any other trap, easy enough to get into, but hard enough to get out of.

    It doesn't matter where your journey begins, so long as you begin it...

    recte agens confido

    ~~~~~

    Any advice I provide is given without liability, if you are unsure please seek professional legal guidance.

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    But please include a link to your thread so I know who you are.

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    • #3
      Re: Need advice regarding DWP/Budgeting Loan.

      Hi Kati,

      Thank you so much for the link, I actually haven't heard of them before. I've just looked and unfortunately there are none close to me (I'm in Kent)
      xx

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Need advice regarding DWP/Budgeting Loan.

        Of course it should be possible to sort this UC mix up up out. However I have little faith that it can be done speedily.

        There my be various ways you could get a grant to pay for a new cooker, go to your local Citizens Advice if you want advice on this. But they won't be fast

        If you can't find any other way around the problem then https://www.fairforyou.co.uk/ is a pay weekly company which doesn't charge rip-off prices for their goods. It does involve paying interest though.

        Comment

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