Computer error caused a decade of confusion

What happened

A computer error removed a fundamental piece of information from the calculations for Mr and Mrs J's 2005 claim for a European Union farming subsidy called the Single Payment Scheme (SPS). The RPA's computer systems repeated its mistake for SPS 2006. It repeated it again for SPS 2007. In 2008 the RPA realised it had paid Mr and Mrs J almost £3,000 too much. It started to recover this, although Mr and Mrs J said it should not. They made a partly successful appeal against RPA's decision but RPA continued to seek repayment of some of the money.

What we found

RPA acknowledged its computer errors, but failed to give Mr and Mrs J a fair response to their complaint until 2013. In particular, it mishandled its own appeal process. RPA delayed making a formal decision about whether, legally, the overpayment was recoverable. The decision, when it made it, failed to take account of all the relevant considerations. It lacked an adequate approach to debt recovery in cases like this.

Putting it right

RPA needed to give Mr and Mrs J a proper decision, in line with our findings, about whether or not to recover the overpayment. It also needed to take account of the effect of the incorrect information caused by the computer error. Accurate information would have let Mr and Mrs J use their SPS assets properly and plan ahead in order to sustain their SPS claim after 2009.

RPA agreed to apologise to Mr and Mrs J; review its decision about recovering the overpayment; make Mr and Mrs J an apology payment of £2,000 to recognise the lost opportunity to make properly informed decisions about how to use their SPS assets and the effect of poor complaint handling; and to produce guidance for claimants and staff on the recovery of overpayments that, fairly, set out the responsibilities of RPA and of claimants.