A man who was made redundant during the pandemic was paid hundreds of pounds in Universal Credit after finding a new job.
Matt Harris informed the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) of his new job but continued to receive the payments which he did not want or need.
Before the pandemic, he worked for an international events company as a journalist in London, Paris and Amsterdam.
But the arrival of Covid in early 2020 saw many of their events cancelled and the company began losing money, Northants Live reports.
In February 2020, their main event in Italy was cancelled due to Covid and the firm haemorrhaged hundreds of thousands of pounds.
When Matt returned to work, he found himself as one of 21 employees to be made redundant with immediate effect.
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Three weeks later, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the UK's first national lockdown and Matt decided to move in with his girlfriend in Leicester, Leicestershire.
Alongside millions of other Brits, he applied for Universal Credit and got approval to begin receiving payments.
The money was a big help until he found a new position at a local news title when he wrote to the DWP informing them he no longer needed the payments.
But it continued to be paid into his bank account despite multiple requests for them to be stopped.
Matt said: "I was grateful for the support when it was there.
"But there are plenty of people who need that money more than me, especially during the pandemic.
"It seems like the bureaucratic cogs at the DWP are working a little too slowly."
He added: "I usually received £342 a month. This dropped to £177 after my first half pay check in December, and then to £0 in January.
"But on Friday, I received another £342.
"This is after telling them twice, in November and in early January, that I had found a job and updating personal details online, to reflect my salary - which is more than enough to support myself."
Matt said it was not until he contacted the DWP as a journalist on February 26 that they offered to close his account.
It is not yet known why Matt received the additional payments nor whether they must be repaid.
A DWP spokesperson told the Mirror: “We thank Mr Harris for updating his details with us and are looking into his case.”
