Published:  11th March 2025

Over 30 civil society groups and welfare experts have written to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Liz Kendall, warning that “official error” Universal Credit overpayment debt is a scandal in the making.

Read the joint letter

In the joint letter, Public Law Project (PLP) urges the Government to prevent hundreds of thousands of people from being pushed into unfair debt by the DWP’s own mistakes.

The facts:

  • Unlike many other benefits, the DWP is able to directly recover Universal Credit (UC) overpayments that were caused by their own mistakes.
  • In 2023/24, 686,756 new “official error” UC overpayment debts were entered on the DWP’s Debt Manager system.
  • Many people are repaying up to tens of thousands of pounds through deductions to their Universal Credit, due to the DWP’s mistakes.
  • This can lead to severe financial hardship, destructive cycles of debt, and struggles with mental and physical health.

Shameem Ahmad, CEO of Public Law Project, said:

“No one is expecting the DWP not to make any mistakes. However, it is incumbent on the Department to take responsibility for those mistakes, rather than pushing that burden onto people it should in fact be supporting.

“These official error overpayments have real and highly detrimental consequences for people – causing sudden financial pressures and anxieties, through no fault of their own.

“This is the Government’s chance to ensure it does not plunge hundreds of thousands of more people into debt, go some way in restoring public trust, and ultimately incentivise the DWP to not make errors in the first place.”

The impact of these mistakes can be severe. For example, PLP’s client ‘B’ was overpaid UC due to the DWP failing to take into account a university stipend (a grant) and then incorrectly treating that stipend as a loan. This was despite ‘B’ having declared this information and provided the relevant documentation on a number of occasions. The second overpayment was identified after B contacted the DWP after he heard other students had had similar difficulties. Following intervention by PLP on B’s behalf, the DWP agreed to waive recovery of £10,480.5.

Caroline Selman, senior research fellow at PLP, said:

“We are urging the Government to restrict UC official error overpayment recovery by bringing the test for recovery into line with the test that applies to Housing Benefit. This would mean they could only be recovered where the claimant could reasonably have been expected to realise that they had been overpaid.”

The House of Commons will discuss Universal Credit overpayments during the passage of the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill. This is a clear opportunity for the Government to ‘right’ these DWP wrongs, address unfairness, and demonstrate the DWP’s commitment to getting payments right the first time.

Read about the letter in The Independent.