I’ve fucked up .
I was in uni from 2017 til 2019, had to take suspension due to severe mental and Physical ill health . I came home, had to take on role of full time carer to my mum . I was advised to claim universal credit and carers credit, which I did.
I was then told I should have got carers allowance, so applied and got a back date .
DWP immediately got in touch said I couldn’t get back payment of carers allowance and carers credit and I now owed them all the carers credit . I set up repayments with them .
In Jan of this year I went back to uni albeit virtually . I told DWP a hundred times from December onwards . I wrote it in journal . Sent letters . Phoned . They said to let them know on x date - I did tell them on that date .
By x date the next months payment had been processed and DWP again got in touch . Said I owed outstanding repayments and now a new one - three figure sum . They said I should have known that payments are processed on x date and should have told them 5 working days before and it was entirely my fault for not knowing the exact date of when a benefit claim should be stopped - said if you tell them after x date of the month you will always be penalised .
I phoned them several times, wrote letters and they said they’d do a mandatory reconsideration thing and that was in Feb - I’ve never heard a word since . Have tried to call dozens of times but just get endless 4-5 hour waits before being told I’ve got the wrong department . Nobody at DWP seems to know what to do, and one laughed out loud when I said I didn’t physically have that cash to give them . I was so bloody tired from uni and caring for mum and managing my own needs that I stopped phoning them assuming they’d write if they needed to . That was in April ....
I restart uni properly in 3 weeks . It’s full time, clinical placements . I’m in midst of arranging social care for my mum so I can move into halls which is a nightmare . I’ve saved every penny I possibly can and am selling my stuff too as student loan means I’m going to be living off tiny amount . Uni also said they would try to support me to get a job but that means not being able to support my mum at all any more .
If I pay DWP now I’m screwed, I wouldn’t be able to go back . It wouldn’t be affordable at all .
So it’s a case of either I go back to uni and don’t repay (or agree to pay portion of my student loan and eg skip meals to afford) , or repay and don’t go back to uni and go back on benefits .
I’ve buried my head in the sand out of panic and am now sitting 1030 on a Saturday night panicking that they’re going to write to me threatening jail . I don’t know what to do . I suppose I should phone - can they take it off my student loan? I’m panicking if my uni find out that they’ll kick me off the course, I’m worried my failure to get it sorted sooner is fraud?
(I don’t want financial support nor am I after money from this thread, seriously - just advice on what to do next - how to stop panicking basically!)