I would appreciate a second opinion on this.

The Housing Benefit have accepted that the claimant is 'vulnerable' and they will make LHA payments direct to Landlord. The claimant is a young person leaving care.

However.. they made an initial payment of HB, of £530, directly to the claimant, they have admitted that this was an error on their part and that they will make all future payments to the landlord. The claimant has not used the money to pay their rent but the HB Dept are refusing to make a duplicate payment to the landlord.

I have checked the guidance on this and it seems that Direct Payments in this situation are a 'discretionary power' so I am thinking there is no legal challenge /appeal to be made to the HB Dept.

Any advice / opionions would be appreciated.

Thanks

Lisa Goodman
Benefits Adviser
Leaving and After Care
Essex

I don't think there is a right of appeal. My predecessor here went to the ombudsman with a similar case and they found in our favour so we got duplicate rent cheque and some compensation.

Might be worth pursuing in your case.

cheers Ros

There have been a couple of recent CDs on this.
It depends upon the circumstances of the case.

If, as appears to be the case here, the LA made a decision to pay the LL but when attempting to make that payment, due to a system error or human error, the payment was made to the claimant in error then they can, and should, pay the landlord for the same period.

If, however, the LA initially made the decision to pay the claimant, made a payment to them and have now accepted that the decision was wrong and revised it to pay the landlord then there is no provision to pay the LL again for the same period.

So in précis - Cock up when making the payment - can pay again for same period.

- Accepting earlier decision was wrong, can't.

Jeff

The one you really need to look at is CH/758/2008

Thanks everyone for all your input.

I can't find the CH/758/2008 decision anywhere - if anyone has a copy I would appreciate it.

Thanks

lisa

I think Stainsby was actually refering to CH/765/2008 if you mail me I'll send you a copy.

Julian.hobson@kirklees.gov.uk

Thu 15-Jan-09 03:57 PM by stainsby

I was actually referring to CH/765/2008, but I had mislabelled it when I saved my copy. Sorry for misleading everyone