Member

I think it is worth explaining this, and it might help the noble Lord, Lord Vaux, by imagining this process in two stages. First, the department has long-standing powers under Section 71 and 71ZB of the Social Security Administration Act 1992 to recover public money wrongly paid in excess of entitlement, however that came about. Those provisions include rights of reconsideration and appeal against the overpayment decision. If it seems that you have been overpaid, you can appeal the decision that you have been overpaid by a certain amount; you can go to mandatory reconsideration and, if that is rejected, you can go to the First-tier Tribunal and appeal the amount. That is about the amount.