housing benefit overpayment advice please

fishingcinema

hi there

i am after some advice for my mum please

she has been trying to sort all her debt out and has just cleared over £2000 in rent arears and council tax

then last friday she received a letter through saying that she owes money for a housing bebefit overpayment on two seperat occasions from the end of 2002 and 2003 the two total to arround £400

last friday was the first time she knew anything about this she has never received any letters previously

what i would like to know is how long are they allowed to go back for things like this

she is a little upset as she thought she was getting all sorted and now this has come up i have asked her if she can remember if she was in work and the time or unemployed as she did have a gap in work where she did claim but i myself can not remember the dates

many thanks for any help and advice

[Deleted User]

From what i`ve read on here in the past they can go back as far as they like
Would probably help if you go find out as much as you can i.e. was she working etc,it may well be that she had told them her situation at the time and they hadnt acted on it,making it official error,and much harder for them to recover

SomeBozo

For normal companies (ie not DSS and Inland Revenue) its usually 7 years, but for the government there is no time limit wen it comes to benefits and taxes.

It can be distressing, but its only £400 (assuming she owes it), and will be able to be paid back in stages.

Its less than a holiday!

Bozo

fluffymovie

I would recommend your mother to seek advice from CAB and to contact the Local Authority and ask for a statement of reasons for the overpayment and why these have now been brought up where, I assume, she has been on benefit for some time?

This isn't the same as an appeal as her rights to appeal are long gone.

The authority will have written to your mother to notify her of the overpayment but she may not have received them.

cw18

Watchdog had something on last night about loads of people on Pension Creidt getting letters about overpayments several years ago they now want back -- and I'm sure that was to do with housing. Might be worth checking if it's part of the same thing, 'cos even what I caught of the article (tuned out of it, as I don't know anyone getting Pension Credit or Housing Costs) seemed to imply if it's an error on the part of the authorities (and not because of something the claimant failed to tell them) they can't reclaim it.......

uganda

fluffymovie wrote: »

This isn't the same as an appeal as her rights to appeal are long gone.

The authority will have written to your mother to notify her of the overpayment but she may not have received them.

They may not have written to her previously about the overpayment - it is surprisingly common for letters to be suppressed at source. Or they may have done a recent retrospective reassessment.

Also, if they have written to her 6, 7 years ago and she hasn't received the letters, as you suggest, she may be able to convince the authority of this and be granted the right to appeal 'out of time' (i.e. late).

OP, it is important to establish how the overpayment came about. Once you know this, ask yourself this question:

Could your mother have reasonably been expected to have known she was being overpaid?

If the answer to that is no, then write to the authority explaining why. If they are satisfied that you are right they will not recover it.

Feel free to tell us how it came about once you know and I'll give you my thoughts on it then.