Can anyone help.
I have an appeal ongoing for HB & CTB O/P. Appeal has been on hold whils t outcome of high court decision above.

Seems that whilst councils always accept official error they always blame the client for the other parts relating to O/P.

The new reg. seems to indicate that councils should seek recovery from al parties involved and not just the claimant of benefit, e.g. landlord.

Chairman of apeals written to the council involved who seem to think that they should not sek recovery of any overpayment from landlord as landlord could not have known there was any overpayment, however they say the client/claimant of benefit should have known.

The case in question is based on o/p caused by carer premiums. Client has no idea of applicable amounts and the councils calculations do not say how they arrive at the figures re benefit entitlement. There are elements of income which are disregarded but no expalnation of how the figure is made up.

How should a client kmow if the council cannot explain.

O/P went on for 2/3 years even though client submitted all relevent info every year to renew entitlement. Now council say they made a mistake and want money back.

Any ideas based on new judgement above.

Many thanks

Nigel

Before responding, a bit more info and clarification is needed so that an accurate response can be made. A couple of questions come to mind:

1) what was the cause(s) / reason(s) for the overpayment? (e.g. what income / cap / other circs were taken into account when they should, or should not, have been?)

2) what is the error that the LA are believed to have made?


As to the legal position, the following may help....

Is the o/p recoverable?

If there is no official error, HB/CTB overpayments are recoverable irrespective of any other matter.

If the overpayment was caused by official error, it is still recoverable unless the clmt can show that:

1) s/he did not contribute to the LA / DWP / HMRC mistake; AND
2) s/he could not reasonably have been expected to realise s/he was being overpaid at either the time of the payment (or award), or any notice relating to the payment (or award).


Actual recovery

Actual recovery of a recoverable overpayment is a matter of discretion for the LA (non-appealable).


Target for recovery of a recoverable overpayment

Caution - this is the simplified version - there are exceptions to this! Where payment is made to a landlord, but the L/L is not to blame for the o/p, the L/L cannot (normally) be a target for recovery. In such a situation, the target will be the clmt.


Regards