If the council make a mistake

sistafromanothermista

and in turn this leads to them overpaying HB is there a leg to be stood on?

Reason being, my sister did just this. Gave her council all the info and they mis calculated. She did receive notices through every so often but as her circumstances hadn't changed didn't read them :wall:

They are now taking her to court in August for benefit fraud :eek:
I feel it isn't all her fault as right at the beginning she gave them all the correct details. Surely it's their job to check they have this correct?! (not too sure how this all works:o)

Any advice would be great as she is freaking out

mynameistallulah

How long was she overpaid for? How obvious was the error/ miscalculation?

Tigsteroonie

In my case, although I had sent the Council all the correct information & documents and they had made a mistake in not including one of our sources of income, the Council advised me that it was MY responsibility to check through their award documents to ensure that they were correct (ie. check that all income sources had been listed). I argued to and fro for a while but with no success.

However, I only owed them around £100 in overpayment (it wasn't a court situation). When they sent through the invoice for lump-sum repayment, I responded that I couldn't find that money immediately now that they had cut my HB - and offered to repay it over the same period as the overpayment had been created, which worked out at £7/wk. I didn't really give them a choice, told them that I'd already set up a standing order into their accounts!

McKneff

Sorry, but they dont take yu to court for overpayment.
They ask for it back, they are entitled to it back even if they have made a mistake. They then claw it back through her benefits, either in a lump sum or a payment plan. She would have no choice and it would not go to court.

Being taken to court for benefit FRAUD is something entirely different and me thinks yu are told getting told the whole story.

Kimberley

I think they would expect the claiment to check it out herself. I think i've been overpayed my HB and CTC so i'm going to make an appointment to see them to find out. I would think i'd have to pay it all back though. It's only through and official error you can appeal.

sistafromanothermista

Hi, i believe it was 2-3 years :eek:
Obvious to me as i read through all the letters they had sent (the ones which clarify what info the claim is based on ) These letters (and i mean there were at least a dozen) we all un-opened (bar 1) as she didn't understand the jargon and as nothing had changed in her circumstances regarding income assumed it to be correct.

A little bit of background she suffers from severe anxiety and depression whereby if she feels stressed she won't open mail, won't answer phone calls, won't answer the door etc. bit of a nightmare really for all around her trying to pick all these pieces up.
She had an interview with the fraud team and had a panic attack during it.

dragonsoul

McKneff wrote: »

Sorry, but they dont take yu to court for overpayment.
They ask for it back, they are entitled to it back even if they have made a mistake. They then claw it back through her benefits, either in a lump sum or a payment plan. She would have no choice and it would not go to court.

Being taken to court for benefit FRAUD is something entirely different and me thinks yu are told getting told the whole story.

regrettably i have to agree, to take you to court for benefit fraud they need a lot of evidence, and just being over-paid would not provide a good enough case in my opinion (sorry) has she had a partner living there without telling them or something?

jane130

we ended up with an overpayment last year after we got more tax credits tax credits than expected - it made out annual income more than we had expected and impacted on HB - Court never got mentioned they are just taking it back out of our current entitlement meaning we pay a bit more rent than we would have otherwise .

sistafromanothermista

McKneff wrote: »

Sorry, but they dont take yu to court for overpayment.
They ask for it back, they are entitled to it back even if they have made a mistake. They then claw it back through her benefits, either in a lump sum or a payment plan. She would have no choice and it would not go to court.

Being taken to court for benefit FRAUD is something entirely different and me thinks yu are told getting told the whole story.

Well they are i've read through the whole sorry story letter by letter :mad:

They calculated (afetr the interview) all the ££ she had to pay back and requested it at something ridiculous like £50pw. She filled in an SOA and said she couldn't affor £50 but could pay £10. They said no. Asked her to fill in another means test form and reply within 14 days........she had another head/sand episode and didn't reply :wall:
They then sent out a court summons for non payment -ignored-liabilty order thing applied through court-letter sent saying she needs to seek legal advice.

skintandscared_2

sistafromanothermista wrote: »

and in turn this leads to them overpaying HB is there a leg to be stood on?

Reason being, my sister did just this. Gave her council all the info and they mis calculated. She did receive notices through every so often but as her circumstances hadn't changed didn't read them :wall:

They are now taking her to court in August for benefit fraud :eek:
I feel it isn't all her fault as right at the beginning she gave them all the correct details. Surely it's their job to check they have this correct?! (not too sure how this all works:o)

Any advice would be great as she is freaking out

It's their job to calculate what she's entitled to. It's her job to check they've done it correctly. I know it seems unfair but judging from the posts on this forum the amount of times the authorities get it wrong is literally astounding and unfortunately I don't think her defence of not opening the letters they sent her will sway the court

dragonsoul

sistafromanothermista wrote: »

Hi, i believe it was 2-3 years :eek:
Obvious to me as i read through all the letters they had sent (the ones which clarify what info the claim is based on ) These letters (and i mean there were at least a dozen) we all un-opened (bar 1) as she didn't understand the jargon and as nothing had changed in her circumstances regarding income assumed it to be correct.

A little bit of background she suffers from severe anxiety and depression whereby if she feels stressed she won't open mail, won't answer phone calls, won't answer the door etc. bit of a nightmare really for all around her trying to pick all these pieces up.
She had an interview with the fraud team and had a panic attack during it.

i too suffer with depression anxiety and stress, and i too (when crashing) ignore letters etc, i really cant explain why i suspet as its being going on over this amount of time, it will be due to a benefit change, most likely she was on income support (an old passport benefit that granted full HB) and has been moved to ESA of something like that