Can anyone advise....

willing2learn_3

nottslass wrote: »

Hi willing2learn,
You can appeal against the overpayment ,on the basis that it occurred because of "official error" (you gave them all the information in regard to income etc) Write to the council stating that you believe the over payment arose due to official error and because you could not reasonably be expected to have known this (due to the complicated way HB is calculated)the over payment is not repayable.


Hope this helps and good luck X

nottslass

thanks for the advice. I will read and up and see what my position will be. I actually don't mind if I do owe the money, but wished that it had been calculated properly. It's hard to know what the truth is as it is very complicated and i don't think they explain it very well....at least in my area.

McKneff

just the fact that yu own a telly means you have to have a licence. The only way out of that one is to get rid of the telly. They will say that you have apparatus on the premises which are capable of receiving signals.

willing2learn_3

anniehanlon wrote: »

just the fact that yu own a telly means you have to have a licence. The only way out of that one is to get rid of the telly. They will say that you have apparatus on the premises which are capable of receiving signals.

That's what they told me the first time i moved into my flat and bought a new TV and i purchased a licence......but when that expired i asked them twice if they were sure i could keep the tv to watch DVD's on and they said yes, so long as i didn't watch the actual TV. So i've had mixed messages on that one....but they were perfectly clear about it the second time that i asked....

McKneff

you just have to look at your licence. Do yu want to take the risk?

mumoftwins

Please, please make sure you pay your rent above all else! It causes untold problems if you don't!

willing2learn_3

Annie and mumoftwins

thanks. Annie, you are right i will write to them and get it in writing as to what they said. Either that or i lose the TV, i don't need it anyway.

mumoftwins, i've paid the rent

I will post again when i've had to time to catch up with this whole housing benefit thing.....work pressures taking over at the moment. :-)

ifonlyitwaseasier

hey willing,

if you haven't got the tv attached to the aerial in any way then you don't need a license at all, and you can watch dvds as it's not live transmissions.

good luck on the promotion and fingers crossed the council listen, let us know!

calleyw

anniehanlon wrote: »

just the fact that yu own a telly means you have to have a licence. The only way out of that one is to get rid of the telly. They will say that you have apparatus on the premises which are capable of receiving signals.

Wrong, Wrong, Wrong.

You can have a TV as long as it de-tuned. You can have it for watching DVD's, playing games through etc..

But the one things you are not allowed to do is to get people to tape stuff off the telly for you to watch at a later date. Then you would need a licence.

And no I don't get any hassle not had a tv at all for the past 7 years.

Yours

Calley

willing2learn_3

Ifonlyitwaseasier and Calley

thanks for the clarification!

As regards the council....well they will not consider a discretionary housing payment, as they consider my situation not to be short term.....and those payments are for short term problems. I consider it short term, just to cover for their miscalculation.....but there we go. You cannot appeal that decision.

I will therefore look into appealing the actual housing benefit decision....but i'm not sure if i have a case. It just seems unfair that they are doing this when i was so honest about everything from the start.

I will let you know if i begin an appeal. In the meantime if there is anyone who can advise on the whole appeal side of things i'm all ears

thanks

W2L

nottslass_2

Hi W2L,
From your first post it appears that you gave to council all the necessary information in regard to your income (including your bonus) If this is correct, then over payment has arisen from a "LA official error overpayment" which basically means that the over payment has occurred due to a mistake when calculating your entitlement and is therefore "only recoverable if the claimant could reasonably be expected to have known that there was an overpayment"

You need to write to the council stating that you are APPEALING AGAINST THE RECOVERY OF AN OVERPAYMENT OF HOUSING BENEFIT.In your letter, state that because you supplied all details of your income including your bonus, and the overpayment occurred due to an "administrative error" on their part,which under Housing benefit regulations is not recoverable.
You also need to make it very clear why you couldn't have been aware of the overpayment (very important) -usually because the way they calculate H/B is so complicated, a "lay person" could not be reasonably expected to understand how your entitlement is calculated

Good luck.

You can get more info on Housing Benefit regulations at www.rightsnet.org.uk
if you go into the section at the top right hand side of their home page you will see a link for TOOL KIT click on this ,go into guidance then look for the relevant bit for housing benefit.