I know that the landlord can request deductions from IS at the rate of £3.05 pw to cover rent arrears (if over 8 weeks arrears)...

But tnt also has HB o/p.. and HB dept are clawing this back at £9.15 pw from current HB claim.. So tnt needs to pay in total £12.20 pw to the rent account...

I have tried (with tnts consent) to set up a BSO, but bank are not initiating.. Can the DWP deduct £12.20 pw week from IS to cover both the amounts needed to cover the rent arrears & HB o/p...???

Tnts arrears currently over £4k.. and I am trying depserately to avoid eviction action.. Memory loss issues so cant pay voluntary at PO...

Cli. on IS and DLA - high rate both components...

Any thoughts.....

Unfortunately, the regs (schedule 9 para 5 Claims and Payments Regs) assume that full current rent (apart from fuel and water charges) is paid by HB.

Is it worth trying to help the client set up a new account with a bank that WILL implement a standing order?

First things first - the £9.15 is being recovered directly by the HB section by way of deducting it from any rent they are pating to the landlord - in normal circumstances the tenant has to make up the difference out of his opwn pocket.

We would normally ask the recovery section to reduce the clawback where we can show that the full amount is causing financial hardship. However, your client appears to have a minimum income of some £180 per week, or over £200 if he also gets the SDP premium: therefore financial hardship becomes harder to argue.

As a matter if interest, how did any landlord allow rent arrears to reach £4000 +, and what caused them? possibly the client's inability to respond adequately and in good time to corrospondance from the local HB section? Where we are aware of clients with such problems, we always flag up the file as requiring a visiting officer which obviously stops problems from arising.
What medical condition(s) warrents the award of high rates of DLA? Are there serious mental health issues - was/is the landlord aware of the possible relavance of these .......

The arrears built up over a long period of time when property belonged to LA.. Due mainly to many many change of circs.. work and out, work and out..

There are medical conditions, memory loss etc.. but GP has been less than helpful when asked for evidence and assistance.. Requesting a fee for any information..

Did think of asking for reduction, but you hit the nail on the head, as there is some surplus income..

As an aside, went through some old paperwork with cli last month and there was a copy of a letter she sent to the HB dept. This clearly shows difficulty with spelling and she writes asking them for help with forms etc...

This letter was sent around Oct 05.. The o/p occured around 04.. However, they were not raised and cli not informed about them til recently (08).. Im therefore think of asking them to write off due to cli's inability to have realised she was being o/p at the time.. and especially as they had evidence of her neeing help in her letter, which they received prioir to the o/p's being raised..

How successful do you think I owuld be with this..?

I'm not entirely sure whether you are arguing that the OP is not recoverable, or asking the authority to exercise their discretion not to recover a recoverable overpayment.


In the former case whether, she can reasonably have been expected to have realised that she had been overpaid is relevant. But only if you can also establish that the OP arose as a result of an official error. In this case, probably because she informed the authority of the changes of circumstance (or you can demonstrate that they were already aware of them) and they failed to act on the information. If you can demonstrate both official error and that she could not be expected to realise that she had been overpaid, then the OP is not recoverable.

In any event, if you appeal the decision (even by making a late appeal), recovery should be suspended pending an appeal which should stabilise the situation for the time being.

However, I think that you are probably looking at the latter strategy.

In this case, I think that you have quite a good argument. What evidence is there as to whether or not she got the help requested in the letter from 2005? If she didn't then it strengthens the case.

You may also be able to get round the lack of medical evidence by asking for a copy of the claim form and medical reports from he DLA claim from DWP, if the evidence was strong enough to get her HRM/HRC then it could well be quite helpful for this matter.

You're a godsend.. I wasnt quite sure which way to go with this, but you have clarified it all for me..

I will go down the discretionary write off route.. and very good idea to get the schedule of evidence from the DLA people.. Hadnt thought of that as a way to get medical evidence...

Thanks..

You might also want to have a look at CD CH/2943/2007, which deals with official error o/p's.