Hello all

A resident moved into one of our properties in January 2006. HB was awarded at full rate, but the first HB payment made to us at the end of February was less than expected (HB notification letters were not received by us).

I wrote to LA at end of March asking the reason for reduction but no response from LA. Wrote again at start of May - again, no response. Wrote again at end of May - received letter from LA early June stating that an overpayment of HB was made to the resident at his previous address, and this had been taken in bulk from the first HB payment to us. I wrote to LA mid-June requesting they pay the deduction to us and invoice the resident direct, or at the very least take the deductions at a weekly rate rather than in bulk - no response received, so follow-up letter sent at end of July.

Response received last week (mid-August) quoting HB reg 102 (1a) (a-c) stating LA has discretion to recover overpayment in one lump sum from HB due on second property.

The resident left us in mid-July so we stand no chance of collecting this from the resident (in all honesty, it is unlikely we would have been able to collect this in bulk from the resident even if we'd known the situation from day 1).

Does anyone think we have grounds to demand the LA pays us for the difference and invoices the resident direct, especially when the delays are taken into account?

Thanks

LD

The Regs say-
"(1A) Where
(a) a claimant has moved into a dwelling which he occupies as his home;
(b) a recoverable overpayment of housing benefit is thereafter made direct to him in connection with the dwelling he occupied as his home immediately preceding the date he moved to that dwelling; and
(c) the same relevant authority which made the recoverable overpayment is paying housing benefit to that claimant in respect of that new dwelling,
the relevant authority may at its discretion deduct from the housing benefit it is paying to the claimant in respect of a benefit week an amount equal to the claimant's weekly entitlement to housing benefit at his new dwelling, and may do so for the number of benefit weeks equal to the number of weeks during which the claimant was overpaid housing benefit."

The payment of benefit under (c) above must be "to the claimant" to allow bulk recovery not, as was the case here, to the landlord. Try pointing this out to the LA.

Thanks - I shall quote this in my response.
Cheers
LD