This is a strange one. A couple on PC guarantee credit live with their son, who works and is not entitled to CTB. They claimed, and were awarded, CTB backdated to Feb 04 for the full amount of the bill. The council have now accepted that they made an error because the son is the owner of the house and therefore liable for the full amount of the council tax and the parents should not have been awarded CTB at all. They are no longer asking the parents to pay back the overpaid benefit, but they have recalculated the son's liability back to 2004, with a 25% second adult rebate. This means that the son will be billed for 75% of the council tax for the whole period in question so the overpayment made to his parents will, in effect, be recovered from the son's council tax bill. Can they do this?

The legal position is that benefit has never been awarded to the son and, therefore, he has not been overpaid. His subsequent liability is a separate entity.

Unless someone has some legal pearler, the only recourse I can see is for the son to complain and seek some form of compensation (outside the benefits scheme).

I have consulted with our support unit and we wonder if it would be possible to argue that the overpayment has, in effect, been recovered from the son's council tax bill, because the benefits section must have physically taken back the money paid into the account. If it is accepted that it is not recoverable, would it not be illegal for recovery to be made from anyone? In fact, even if it was recoverable, is it not the case that an overpayment of Council Tax Benefit cannot be recovered from anyone other than the claimant?

Again, barring a legal pearler, I don't see that argument getting anywhere.

Wearing my LA hat, the money has been recovered from the original clmt. It has simply been offset against the reduction in the clmt's CTAX liability.

The subsequent introduction of liability for the son is, in this context, a separate matter.

So, my view remains that compensation is the only means of redress.

Obviously, there is nothing to stop you putting forward the argument(s) suggested, but I'd be pretty surprised if they were successful.

Regards

Have just spoken to the benefits manager at the LA and she has confirmed that the overpayment is not recoverable because it was due to an official error and the claimant could not have known that he was being overpaid. The son will not be asked to pay anything for the period of the overpayment, but will have to pay the full council tax less the 25% second adult rebate from now on.
I think the key here is that the overpayment was not recoverable.
In any case, things have worked out as well as could be hoped for. Thanks for your input.

Well, congratulations . But, I sincerely think you've been very lucky - I think the manager has entirely misunderstood the differentiation between who the overpayment was in relation to and the difference in who is/was liable.

Also, although the o/p was a result of official error, it was still recoverable in the circumstances. The official error exception does not apply to "...any excess benefit arising in consequence of a reduction in tax..." - CTBR 83(2).

But, as I said, congrats.

Should have acknowledged that the manager could have written off the overpayment (which is clearly not what has happened); but that is about recovery, not recoverability.

Regards