To appeal or not to appeal,I think I know the answer.

I have a tenant who made a claim for HB & CTB. She submitted a claim form to housing benefits with her employment & income included but with a line thru .It was still easy to see where she worked and how much she was paid. She provided bank statements showing her earnings being paid in. My client had not been working as she was off sick following surgery but still being paid in full. Her husband was being paid JSA conts (declared). They also received WTC and Child Benefit, which were declared on the form.

Providing further proof she told the assessor her only income was Child benefit, JSA Conts & WTC.

The claim was assessed and Notification letters were issued which include JSA conts, Child benefit and un earned income and a line which said “DO NOT USE” included in the income used in assessment.

When an intervention was done some time later the earnings were declare and an overpayment was created which my client has appealed against and the LA has sent to TAS.

They have been on benefit before but was some time ago.

In my previous life I worked for the LA and if I had been assessing the claim I would have made further inquiries. In my opinion the assessor did not do a good job when assessing the claim. I know that overpayments are recoverable even LA errors but the LA can choose not to recover. In this case it would be difficult to establish the claimant did not contribute to the overpayment being made.

My client wants me to help her with the tribunal, grounds being that this overpayment is an LA error and should not be recovered. Your comments please…

'Providing further proof she told the assessor her only income was Child benefit, JSA Conts & WTC'.

An overpayment cannot be deemed LA error if the claimant caused or materially contributed to the mistake or omission by the LA. For this reason I'd say it's recoverable...

With regards the issue of failing to question the credits going into her bank account, have a look at CH 69/2003.

How do I find CH/2003? I have looked in the toolkit but I'm unable to find CH/2003.

CH/69/2003 is available via the commissioners website @ www.osscsc.gov.uk.

Thank you Ken,

Having read the commissioners decision I am more sure that my client does not really have any grounds to appeal. How have advisers told their clients in the past they do not feel that appeal is the best way forward as they have little or no chance of sucess?

Carrie

We just tell them really - we also make it clear that this does not mean they cannot take the case further themselves just that we will be unable to help.

We have to be absolutely sure the appeal's a no hoper before we do this though.

We are expressly there for the client but we cannot waste time if an appeal is very obviously going to fail be it for a technical reason or because for example the client says they're a double amputee and they're not. (yes this did happen to me!!)