the following is made up but the issue relates to a real case where myself and the Local Authority disagree about how much of an overpayment is due to 'claimant error' and how much is due to offical error

Client is on HB £60 per week

Client fails to disclose increase in income that would reduce HB to £40 per week

Actual Entitlement is as follows=

Week 1- £40
Week 2- £40
Week 3- £40
Week 4- £40

End of week 4 she discloses

Client receives the following payments

Week 1 - nothing
Week 2-£60 (for week 1)
Week 3-£60 (for week 2)
Week 4-£60 (for week 3)

She receives the payment of £60 for week 4 in week 5 (after the disclosure)

The LA calculate the HB 'claimant error' overpayment as follows

Week 1- paid £60, entitled to £40, over paid £20
Week 2- paid £60, entitled to £40, over paid £20
Week 3- paid £60, entitled to £40, over paid £20

Overpaid £60 total due to 'claimant error'

I argue this:

Total entitlement for period prior to disclosure = £160
Total amount paid before disclosure = £180
Overpayment=£20

My reasoning is that, had the LA dealt promptly with the disclosure, they could have withheld in full the payment 'for' week 4.

Ongoing/future payments of course could only be reduced by the standard amount.

any thoughts?

Paul should have said he is arguing with his colleagues as well as the Local Authority on this one....

He was driving us so demented with his £40 this and £60 that arguments we told him to sort it out on the forum.

Anyway.... what about this:

This is not an argument about the way the offset works. It is an argument about whether a payment made after disclosure (albeit in respect of a week prior to disclosure) is recoverable - this will turn on a reasonable to know argument.

The way they should explain what they want to recover is as follows:

TOTAL PAID = £240.

TOTAL ENTITLEMENT = £160

TOTAL OVERPAYMENT = £80 (which is better for them).
OF WHICH ALL IS RECOVERABLE PROVIDING THEY CAN WIN THE REASONABLE TO KNOW ARGUMENT FOR THE LAST £60. IF YOU WIN THAT ARGUMENT THEN IT WORKS AS FOLLOWS:

Total recoverable overpayment = £180, offset = £120. TOTAL OVERPAYMENT = £60.

Either way it is worse than you reckon.... I think

Who knows hey.

my two cents worth -

it's really about how the overpayment is calculated.

overpayments should be calculated on a week by week amount due agaimst amount paid basis, and it's unsafe to calculate by deducting amount due for the whole period from amount paid for the period - this can let other attributable causes of overpayment sneak in un-noticed. i'd say the LA have got this one right.

if i've understood correctly, it's indisputable that client was paid £60 for each of weeks 1,2 and 3, before the disclosure was made, even though the payments were not made at the correct time. (if payments had been made on time the overpayment would have been £80, right?) the LA hasn't sought to recover week 4 which was paid after the disclosure, so the recoverability question doesn't arise.

i can't see an argument that the LA has misapplied reg 98 (meaning of overpayment).

jj

You also have to take into account that a recent Commissioner’s decision has made it clear that an LA is not expected to act on a reported change immediately. In the case before the commissioner the LA had delayed 2 weeks in processing a reported change but the Commissioner did not regard that as LA error.