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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.
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.
xx
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