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   Court of Appeal rejects Government challenge to benefit overpayments ruling
Supreme Court judges unanimously dismissed a Government challenge today to a legal victory by the Child Poverty Action Group over overpaid benefits. The charity originally went to court after the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) sent out 65,000 letters to benefits claimants telling them they could face legal action if their overpayments were not returned. Judges at the Court of Appeal ruled in October last year that the Government had no power to recover overpaid social security benefits from claimants who had done nothing wrong. The Secretary of State then took the case to the highest court in the land for a final decision. Between March 2006 and February 2007 the Government wrote to claimants telling them it could sue them in the county court if they did not pay back overpayments. The letters acknowledged that the money was paid due to DWP's own mistakes. The benefits affected include those paid to families and those with disabilities as well as pensioners. The DWP's own figures state that at least £1.1 billion a year is paid out in error. The Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) was unsuccessful in the High Court but three judges at the Court of Appeal agreed there was no power of recovery where the overpayments were the result of a mistake and not of misrepresentation or fraud. The judges also ordered that the letters sent out to overpaid claimants, suspended pending their decision, should cease. The appeal hinged on whether the Secretary of State was entitled to recover sums overpaid under the common law of unjust enrichment or whether section 71 of the Social Security Benefits Act 1992 provided the only route to recovery. Section 71 allows the Secretary of State to recover any overpayment resulting from misrepresentation or the non-disclosure of a material fact by the benefits claimant. The CPAG brought the test case on behalf of social security claimants to challenge the Secretary of State's practice on the basis that it is based on a false legal premise. The unanimous ruling held that section 71 of the 1992 Act provides the only route to recovery of social security benefit overpayments to the exclusion of any common law rights. Lord Brown said he found it striking that Parliament had not made express provisions for recovery of mistaken overpayments alongside provisions for misrepresentation and non-disclosure. The question of whether a remedy should be available in cases of mistaken awards is a matter for Parliament, the justices said. Sir John Dyson said the statutory scheme for recovery of benefits was limited to misrepresentation or failure to disclose a material fact. "Simple error on the part of the adjudicating authorities was excluded." Source: 24dash.com
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