A mum told to pay back more than £8,600 of Universal Credit overpayments has been cleared of repaying the balance, a High Court Judge has ruled. The woman, a mum of two disabled children, received a letter from the DWP saying she owed £8,623.20.
She fought the demand as she had repeatedly checked her benefits, and a High Court judge found the department had acted unlawfully in not publishing its overpayment debt waiver criteria, The Express reports.
She was one of some 370,000 claimants to receive overpayments due to a DWP error in a single year, reports ITV News. The woman was in her overdraft when she received the letter from DWP - she was also using a foodbank and working part time on top of caring for her children.
