Happy Monday!

Am looking for a bit of advice please regarding the recovery of Housing Benefit overpayments. We have just received notification from a local authority that they are pursuing recovery of an overpayment that occurred in 1999. This is the first time the local authority has contacted us with regards to this overpayment. The tenant in question has since left the property and has moved several times since so there is no forwarding address for her. The overpayment covers a four week period in 1999, the overpayment amount is approx £300.00.
My question is, given the length of time it has taken the LA to contact us about this overpayment, can they still attempt recovery or is it worth challenging on this basis? I have looked in the HB overpayment guide and this is a bit 'cloudy' about timescales for recovery etc.
Any advice or information would be gratefully received.

Cheers

John

hi john

are HB attempting to recover the money directly from the landlord? if so what ive done successfully is to explain that the tenant has left the property, that you have no forwarding address for her and so have no way of receovering the money from her if the o/p is taken from her old account.

you can suggest to the council that given the very long period of time its taken them to discover the o/p, that it would be very unfair if the money was taken from you as you would be the only party to suffer, as the tenant doesnt repay anything, the council get their money back, the only loser is your organistaon, who i presume were not connected to the cause of the o/p in anway

the council will have much better methods of attempting tracing the tenant involved

Firstly, some clarification...

The right of appeal is limited to whether the o/p is recoverable - there is no right of appeal against actual recovery. So, if this is simply the LA enforcing recovery of something that was properly dealt with initially (including notifications), it could well be that there is not much you can do.

However, not all is necessarily lost. A number of questions spring to mind:

1) Is this a case where the LA is now attempting to seek recovery of an overpayment that they have previously notified you of? Or, is this the first time the LA has notified you?

2) Has the LA formally notified you of the o/p? If so, when (an invoice doesn't count)?

3) Was the decision made on the same date as the notification? If not, when was the decision itself made?

4) What are the reasons for making the o/p recoverable from you instead of the clmt? If the LA is suggesting the o/p is recoverable from BOTH you and the clmt, why? Also, has the LA FULLY notified BOTH parties of the same decision?

5) Has a statement of reasons been requested? (bear in mind there is NO TIME LIMIT for requesting a full statement of reasons, AND, any party from whom recovery is being sought is entitled to FULL details in respect of both the calculation of the o/p itself + ALL of the details relating to why there is no/reduced entitlement + ALL of the reason(s) as to why the LA considers the o/p to be recoverable from you. It may also be worth asking the LA to provide evidence that they have fully notified ALL parties from whom they consider the o/p to be recoverable from.

Hope the above helps.