Leeds pensioner DWP undeclared savings overpayment sentencing, Digi Mart USA News (Leeds, England): A Leeds pensioner who failed to declare he had £42,000 in savings to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has avoided prison. Kiamarz B Birgani, 69, was overpaid £30,821 in employment and support allowance and £11,087 in housing benefit before he was caught out.
Birgani claimed he did not realise he had to declare any savings to the DWP. Prosecutor Vincent Blake-Barnard told Leeds Crown Court on Tuesday, November 3, that employment and support allowance and housing benefits are available only to people who do not have significant savings.
Blake-Barnard said savings affect a claim above £6,000 and that support tapers to zero once savings reach £12,000. Birgani first claimed employment and support allowance on June 9, 2016, for himself and his wife, and did not report any savings or changes in circumstances.
In September 2003, he also claimed housing benefit, which was paid directly to his landlord.
The prosecutor said the amount of savings exceeded the £12,000 threshold for the period of the claim, peaking at £42,000, and that his failure to declare them generated the overpayment. During his interview, Birgani, of Raynel Drive, Leeds, said he did not know the rules and “wasn’t aware he had to disclose the information.”
Birgani has already begun repaying part of the overpayment on a monthly basis. His barrister, Andrea Parnham, did not elaborate further on her submissions when asked by Her Honour Judge Rayfield whether her mitigation was that Birgani was so unwell that he did not properly consider his savings, and whether there was an element of dishonesty.
The judge told the court that Birgani had been a working man until physical injuries stopped him from continuing to work. She said that, given he had paid back the majority of the overpayment and continues to do so, she was willing to sentence him in accordance with the recommendation.
Birgani was made the subject of a 12-month community order.
