Review of decision that you must repay Recoverable Hardship Payment

Hardship Payment Repayments

This is for people who received a hardship payment from Universal Credit and have paid it back between September 2017 and 11 January 2021. You would only have received a hardship payment if your Universal Credit was reduced because of a sanction or fraud penalty.

Eligibility

You can ask for a review of the decision not to stop the repayment of your hardship payment if all of the following apply:

• you asked Universal Credit or Debt Management to waive the repayment of a hardship payment between September 2017 and 11 January 2021
• your request to waive the repayment was refused
  and
• you have repaid the hardship payment

You will also need to show that either:

• you could not afford to repay the hardship payment at that time

or

• repaying it had a significant effect on you or your family’s health or wellbeing - this means that it caused a health condition or made a health condition worse.

How to apply

You can fill out the application form

You will need to provide evidence from the time you were repaying your hardship payment.

You will need to provide evidence that:

• you could not afford to repay your hardship payment

or

• repaying your hardship payment affected you or your family’s health or wellbeing

This could include:

• financial information from the time, such as bank statements, information about loans, or letters from creditors
• information from a doctor or other medical professional saying that repaying the money caused a health condition or made it worse.

You will also need to provide information about your income and living costs at the time. If you do not have all of this information, you can still apply. However, it will help your application if you can give as much information as possible.

You can also write a letter that answers the questions on the form.

Send the form and other documents to:

Debt Management
PO Box 2136
Belfast
BT1 9RW

What happens next

A decision will be made on whether you should receive a refund of your repayment. You may be contacted for more information. If it is decided that you should receive a refund, you will be repaid.