Council tax , they giveth and they taketh away

Anxietyaintsogood

I have been getting help with SAMH , helping me with benefits and shopping tenancy support.

Danny my support worker got a form for council tax severe mental impairment SMI, doc signed it so now i dont have to pay council tax...
Thing is they said they are giving me backdated money of over £5000 , geez
But i got a letter in just now saying they have over paid my benefit between 01.04.2010 till 31/03/2013 and the overpayment is £1335.53.

Is this right and what should i do ?

I cant talk to my support worker till he comes next friday afternoon...

Anxiety causes me to worry at the best of times

Any info/advice is most welcome.

HappyMJ

Don't stress and wait until Friday. It's probably not right but having someone there to help you will help. If the letter requires you take action before next Friday then write a letter asking for more time explaining the reason.

miduck

What reason do they give for the overpayment?

Anxietyaintsogood

thanks for the replys...

info on the letter...

The cancellation of your council tax benefit has resulted in more benefit being paid than you were originally due.
This overpayment happened because your council tax liability has been amended

theres a lot of facts and figues should i post everything on the letter ?

I was never in arrears , my tax was paid by direct debit

thanks

miduck

It sounds like they have given you too much back, so you will need to repay some of the £5000 back. However to be sure, you (or someone acting on your behalf) does need to call them.

McKneff

Easy to say 'dont worry' but I'll say it anyway.

What ever happens you will have this £5k plus to offset the overpayment from so you will still be into pocket.

Hang in there till Friday if you can, if you are still stressing, try and see him before that. Or see if the CAB will see you.

Good luck

Anxietyaintsogood

I'll call him monday

He contacted council the other week and thy said the backdated money will be with me in 6-8 weeks, will that take longer now with the adjustment, or will i have to pay this when i recieve the money

thanks for your input , much appreciated

its a bit frustrating getting the letter on a sat with nothing to do until monday at earliest..

anxiety is a pain, i should feel up getting a surprise in terms of backdated money but they way my mind works it focuses on the overpayment.

im going to take my dog mary for a wee walk and clear my head

HappyMJ

Anxietyaintsogood wrote: »

I'll call him monday

He contacted council the other week and thy said the backdated money will be with me in 6-8 weeks, will that take longer now with the adjustment, or will i have to pay this when i recieve the money

thanks for your input , much appreciated

its a bit frustrating getting the letter on a sat with nothing to do until monday at earliest..

anxiety is a pain, i should feel up getting a surprise in terms of backdated money but they way my mind works it focuses on the overpayment.

im going to take my dog mary for a wee walk and clear my head

Well you cant pay the council back before you get the money so council will just have to wait...if the calculation is correct.

SandraScarlett

Anxietyaintsogood wrote: »

I have been getting help with SAMH , helping me with benefits and shopping tenancy support.

Danny my support worker got a form for council tax severe mental impairment SMI, doc signed it so now i dont have to pay council tax...
Thing is they said they are giving me backdated money of over £5000 , geez
But i got a letter in just now saying they have over paid my benefit between 01.04.2010 till 31/03/2013 and the overpayment is £1335.53.

Is this right and what should i do ?

I cant talk to my support worker till he comes next friday afternoon...

Anxiety causes me to worry at the best of times

Any info/advice is most welcome.

Hi, I can understand you worrying, so I'll give you what info I have. If you have a mental health problem - my husband has Alzheimers - you are disregarded in respect of Council Tax. So I'm treated as if I lived on my own, and get a 25% discount. If my husband was living on his own, prior to claiming, he'd have been paying 75% of Council Tax, but since claiming, wouldn't have to pay anything.

Do you live on your own, or with someone? What I am guessing might have happened, is that there are 2 different departments dealing with your Council Tax. The first one has decided you are entitled to a full refund, back to the date your GP has said you've had MH.

If, for example, the CT for your house was £2K per year, you would have been liable for £1500 per year. If your claim dates back 4 years, you are owed £6K. :j:j:j (I know you said over £5K, but I've rounded it up).

Then department 2 comes along, and sees that they awarded you a 25% deduction, from April 2010 to March 2013, amounting to £1335.53 till March this year, and they want it back, but, even though the 2 departments are actually sitting next to each other, they don't speak!

The "6-8 weeks" is an overestimate, and though DH received a letter to this effect, it was in our bank account in less than 2 weeks. You may well find that when you get your refund, they have deducted the £1335.53 from the amount that is paid into your account.

When my DH was awarded the refund, we were also told we did not need to pay the last 3 Direct Debit payments, as these had been included in the refund. So I cancelled the DD payments. The following week I had a letter stating: it has come to my notice that you have cancelled your remaining Direct Debit payments. You must either reinstate these, or pay the balance, as per the attached invoice. The attached invoice read Amount due: £0.00 Frightened the life out of me! :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

I know it's easy to say don't worry, but nobody will be demanding anything, and if you get a stern letter, just ask them to deduct the amount you must pay back, from the amount they owe you. Good luck :beer:

xx

daimonde

You might be talking two departments depending on the council, Council Tax & Council Tax Benefits.

Basically, once the Council Tax people award the SMI there is nothing for the Council Tax Benefit to cover, no liability for Council Tax, which creates the overpayment, its basically juggling money that never exists, just swapping it from one system to another.

The amount you get back will be what you have actually paid in for the period theyve awarded the SMI, you cant have a refund on any Council Tax paid by the Benefit & it sounds like you've been receiving partial CTB for the past 3years.

Any 'overpayment' should be offset before your credit is issued, thats what id ring & check if i were you.


You still have nothing to pay for your Council Tax, no dealing with Council Tax Benefit once this is done, no worries about Council Tax Support in April and on top of that a nice cash sum in your pocket. Could be worse

CIS

The overpayment is a technical overpayment which will be offset against the council tax benefit which had already been credited directly to your council account.

Effectively all they are doing is removing one form of reduction and replacing it directly with another. You have no need to worry and no monies will be taken from you, you may even be due some money back (assuming you haven't always been on full benefit).

The council have to issue the paperwork to you because your benefit and council tax entitlement has altered , even if its just replacing one reduction with another.