By Isabelle Bates

Copyright birminghammail

A woman has asked for help after being told that she owes the Department for Work and Pensions ( DWP ) £8,000. It comes after she claims that she was told her ‘widow’s pension’ – known as Bereavement Support Payment or BSP – would not impact her universal credit. However, this was not the case and she has since been overpaid the hefty sum. READ MORE: Bilston burglary sparks CCTV appeal as police seek man who ‘could help enquiries’ Get breaking news on BirminghamLive WhatsApp , click the link to join The woman is set to face the issue at a tribunal, and asked Reddit users what she should wear to appear ‘professional.’ She wrote: “I’m extremely anxious about my upcoming tribunal. I have a date now. In short, my tribunal hearing is because when I informed them of my pension, I was told by Universal Credit that my Widows Pension does not affect my Universal Credit. “Fast forward several years later, I had a review and was told it does affect it. Now being chased for almost £8k overpayment even though it wasn’t my fault! “I am autistic and I find certain clothing extremely difficult. I have reasonable adjustments at work to wear more relaxed clothes instead of the official uniform. I’m just anxious that if I turn up wearing a plain hoodie and tracksuit bottoms (these are my autism safe clothes – even if it’s black tracksuit bottoms that I wear for work) then the judge will consider me as unprofessional and take Universal Credit’s side. “On the other hand, with the money Universal Credit has taken off me, I can’t afford to buy new formal clothes anyway as my job is unfortunately just zero hours and each shift is 2 hours. Please can anyone help me here. Am I worrying over nothing?” Other Reddit users offered advice to the woman in the comments. One said: “I think you should wear what is comfortable for you. Too many times on assessments, making an effort to be clean and smart goes against you, as it shows capability. “I would guess the same applies to tribunals.” Another added: “The Tribunal will be dressed formally (business formal like shirt and tie, maybe a suit jacket) but you should dress in what makes you comfortable. “If that’s a tuxedo go for it. If it’s just normal casual clothes, go for it. Generally I would suggest making sure you’re in clean clothes, with no offensive slogans and you’ll be golden. “What you’ve suggested you’re going to wear sounds absolutely fine. I can’t recall a case that I’ve come across where how the claimant was dressed made a material difference to the outcome.” A third person agreed and said: “Yeah, just wear something plain with no graphics/logos on.”