AN OSWESTRY pensioner has called on the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) to bring his family's misery to an end and allow them to pay back monies owed.
Trevor Harris, 83, says he has spent the last 12 months trying to pay off a sum of money the DWP says his son Anthony owes for working over an allowed set out of hours while claiming carer's allowance.
Anthony, 54, cares for his mum but also completes 14 hours a week at Heron Foods in Oswestry, but during the 2020 pandemic, he covered extra shifts to ensure the company was not short staffed because Covid-related absences.
He then did it again for three weeks after extra shifts were allocated to him by mistake.
This, said Trevor, led to the DWP trying to claim back hundreds of pounds from Anthony, but his father says that he struggles to read and write, meaning he not been able to correspond with the DWP and that efforts to pay the money have gone unanswered.
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"We were given a letter by the DWP saying he had to pay back some of his money, around £740 but within that, there was a £50 fine for him not informing them that he had been overpaid," said Trevor.
"On his behalf, because he struggles with reading and writing, and can't do everything around that, I rang the DWP with his permission and said to them that it was a bit unfair fining him £50.
"Reading and writing isn't great for him so he can't answer a letter.
"I spoke to the DWP and their reply was along the lines of 'we will try to lift the fine' to which I agreed and then asked to let us know what we owed so we could pay it.
"But then a new manager from Shrewsbury took over at Heron and after being told that he couldn't work more than 14 hours, he then did a further three weeks of more hours.
"I worked it out that it was just over £200 that he owed to go with the other sum and I contacted the DWP with copies of his bank statement to prove what he had been paid.
"Ever since, I have been ringing and writing and we've had no reply whatsoever – we know the rough sum but we can't get any sense out of them to get it paid."
Trevor says Anthony has been struggling over the inability to pay and wants to solve the issue.
He added: "We are trying to pay the money that we're aware he needs to pay it back.
"It has been upsetting and worrying Anthony because he thinks the DWP will end up putting him in court.
"I'm trying to get to the bottom of it all, get a final total so we can then get it paid.
"We're trying to do the right thing about everyone."
The DWP has been contacted for a comment.
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