Just to flesh out Stainsby's response...
So long as there was otherwise an ongoing award in place, any additional payment produced by the LA's benefits system is indisputably an error and the payments are equally indisputably HB. Only if there had been no claim / award in place could the monies be regarded as being other than benefit (this assumes "double" payments are not at issue here).
Is it recoverable? Agreed, the LL did not contribute to the cause of the o/p. So, that leaves "realise".
One question that springs to mind is this: during the period of the overpayment, did the clmt make payments of rent that substantially, or completely, covered the rental liability? If so, it *may* be argued by the LA that the LL could reasonably have been expected to realise there was an overpayment at the time of the payment. On the other hand, if the LL received notification of higher benefit, the LL would presumably argue it could not reasonably be expected to realise there was an overpayment.
In any case, I would appeal - the LA will then have to argue before a FtT that the o/p is not benefit. I have no doubt a FtT will metaphorically laugh at the LA on that specific point (based on the info given so far). But, the "recoverability" question is never a slam dunk, so a bit of care is needed with that aspect.
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