I've been going through the documentation referenced in the letter I received... A few things I've picked up on that was pointed out in the letter, I suppose I'm clutching at straws at the moment but will find out more when I go to work in the morning.
a. Good Faith -A4.11.5 The decision on how far recovery of an overpayment should be pursued in a
particular case will be influenced by whether the recipient has acted in good or bad
faith:
where recipients of overpayments have acted in good faith, e.g.
genuinely believing that the payment was right, they may be able to use
this as a defence (though good faith alone is not a sufficient defence);
So as I see it, we provided the NVQ/AA/Whatever qualification it was on good faith, but not good faith alone, we had an SME who signed it off and then a counter signature from another qual'd person. The argument I believe is that Q-PI-D requires an additional NVQ assessors qual to accompany it. Surely the individual signing the job off as true to fact would look to see if this qualification was in place before processing? Therefore this is not simply 'Good Faith' but an error by the person signing off as saying we have all the appropriate quals for the Q-PI-D?
Estoppel
A4.11.15 A recipient who has changed his or her position may also be able to rely on
the rule of evidence estoppel if the paying organisation misled the recipient about his or
her entitlement, even if the overpayment was caused by a fault on the part of the
recipient. However, a mistaken payment will not normally of itself constitute a
representation that the payee can keep it. There must normally be some further
indication of the recipient's supposed title other than the mere fact of payment.
Surely Estoppel plays a part where personnel have approached PSF and the admin staff have confirmed they can in fact use the qualification. If someone tells you that you can use it, is this not by the very nature misleading? Just looking at the dictionary definition highlights this..
mislead
mɪsˈliːd/Submit
verb
cause (someone) to have a wrong idea or impression.