Any advice!? Overpayment stress!!

inneedofhelp1

Please could anyone help?

Myself, my partner and our three children have recently moved into a permanent house as we were in temporary accomodation for six years.

We have been just getting by financially so were over the moon to hear we had overpaid rent at our last place of just over £2,000.00 as they only had us as having one child even though we had a second and then more recently a third (of which we did inform the Council).

The Council then sent us a rent refund form for us to complete, sign and return which we done two weeks ago. My partner phoned the Council income collection team today and she was informed that in fact we owe them over £6,000.00 as we were receiving something called a workers reduction / rebate which we were not actually entitled to. Has anyone heard of this or come across this? We are both sick to the stomach with worry and have to phone back Monday to speak to a superior at the income collection team.

Thanks all - any advice would be great.

themonkeybutler

Firstly i have to tell you i know nothing of council overpayments (I deal in tax credits only), but im sure there will be similarities in process.

The first thing you should do is STOP STRESSING! even inthe worst case scenario that you DO owe this money, government repayments wont be above and beyond what you can afford to repay - going through the right channels, you will be asked to provide proof of incomings and outgoings, and the repayment will be set at a manageable level. You'll usually be asked to pay it al upfront, but this is standard, and long repayment periods of manageable sums can always be set.

Secondly, you need to make sure that you DO owe the money. Everyone makes mistakes including council and government offices. It COULD be a mistake.

If its not a mistake and you do owe the money, you can always dispute it. there will be processes for this - speak to the relevent department to find out what they are. If you have a valid dispute, the overpayment may be wiped or reduced. It has to be the department that are at least partly at fault though for this to happen.

When you speak to the "superior", ask about the above.

inneedofhelp1

Thank you monkey - this is re-assuring. When dealing with the Council we become livid and concerned as they always tell us one thing and then on the next occasion tell us another.

Best wishes.

paulofessex

It may also be a good idea to spend the weekend collating as much information as you can in relation to earning, hours etc and anything else you feel they may ask you to provide. Take some copies etc. Also it may be better when you phone them on Monday to ask for an appointment to speak to them face to face and ask them what documents they need to see if any.