NI: People with welfare debt ‘should be told’ about discretionary waiver

NI: People with welfare debt 'should be told' about discretionary waiver

Rachael Jeffers

People with social security debt should be told about the discretionary waiver which allows it to be written off, the Law Centre NI has said.

There has been 3,546 cases of overpayment of Universal Credit since its 2017 roll-out but the discretionary waiver has only been used three times, according to BBC News.

Rachael Jeffers, welfare reform adviser at the Law Centre, said: “Nobody really does know [about it].

“We would say that if anybody is to contact Universal Credit with the debt, they should be told. They should be advised that there is another option here for you.”

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