LA notified by dwp client stopped receiving IS (negative decision on immigration, granted leave 8 months later) but continued to pay; rejected argument that o/p was not recoverable as they insist client should have informed them - although they have confirmed in writing dwp did notify them and it was 'unfortunate' that they overlooked it. chances of successful appeal?

Assuming that the LA were first in possession of the info more or less at the time of the change of circs, AND the LA have apparently acknowledged overlooking that information, it seems that there was an error on the part of the LA.

Based on the info given, the issue is whether or not the clmt could reasonably have been expected to realise s/he was being overpaid .

BUT, the LA MUST first assess underlying entitlement - i.e. the amount of HB/CTB that s/he would otherwise have been entitled to had all the actual circumstances been known at all relevant times.

Hope the above helps.

Regards

Once a fact has been dislosed there is no duty on anyone to dislcose it again (see R(SB)15/87 para 28)

This means that once the LA is in possession of the relevant information, any failure by the LA to act on it will mean that the resulting overpayment is an official error and as Kevin D says the only other question is whether the person from whom recovery is sought could resonably be expected to realise it was an overpayment