So my employer made a HUGE mistake in my June pay, instead of deducting my monthly salary as sick pay they added it, so overpaid me by almost £3,500. I obviously noticed this mistake (they hadn't, I probably could have not said anything and kept the money!) and arranged to pay the amount back to them in full, which I did on 3rd June. My employer sent me a PDF letter confirming the error made and that the money had been paid back in full. I left a message in my UC journal stating what had happened and asking for an email address to send the letter to.

I called the DWP on 7th July initially to chase a response, I was told that I needed to wait longer as they were very busy - which I completely understand, but I'm obviously very anxious to get this sorted out. Having not heard from them by 10th July, I called again and spoke to a different advisor who actually called my case manager whilst I was on hold and explained the situation. A few minutes later my journal had been updated with a message from the case manager giving an email address. I promptly sent off my letter, and was told that the issue would get resolved by the 20th.

I was then very surprised and distressed when I checked my payment statement (released on 21st July) to see that my upcoming UC payment would be £0. I called them and was told that the case manager was waiting until my statement was released and to check back in a couple of days. This didn't make much sense to me, but as I couldn't really do anything else I tried to forget about it for the 48hrs they told me it would take.

I called them again this morning. The advisor told me that they are no longer able to contact the case managers directly (I asked if this had been changed then in the last couple of weeks since an advisor was able to do this on the 10th July, he just repeated that they can no longer contact them). I explained that without the payment, which should have been £1,350, I would be unable to pay my rent, buy food, pay for my utilities, or my phone bill which is very important since I am disabled and need to be able to call my doctor, pharmacy, etc. I have epilepsy and a severe back injury which leaves me housebound. I actually began treatment with Fentanyl last week, an incredibly strong painkiller, and had my epilepsy and nerve pain medication altered so I'm being closely monitored by my GP as well as only getting a weeks worth of meds at a time, so being unable to speak with them is just unthinkable. Not to mention being able to speak with my family, I live alone but my brother helps me with housework once a week and checks up on me.

Just don't know what to do. Even if the case manager looks at the letter today, I can't see them actioning it in time for the 27th. I'm very upset and angry, I've done nothing wrong in this situation and as soon as I discovered the error I did everything I could to put it right immediately, from my point of view this situation was unavoidable!

Oh, how strange. Just like the second time I called about this (I'm now on 4 calls, 2 emails and 2 journal messages, and that's not counting the running around I had to do with my HR department and my bank!) I have just had a message from the case manager in my journal, saying he's going to raise an RTI dispute and will be in contact once a decision has been made. No timescale given of course, so I fully expect to be in serious financial difficulty next week when all my bills are due and I have no money for food 😭😭😭 I don't know what to do, I'm going to email my HR and see if they are willing to give me pay in lieu of holiday days, but I know that their cut off date is the 15th of the month for changes to monthly pay, so even if by some miracle they agreed to help it'll still be too late.