income support - overpayment calculation

shellsuit

zoezoe wrote: »

well no. IS *were* funding her to the tune of £400 a month, £300 of which was paid by her ex.

over 3.5 years IS paid £100 per month, Ex paid £300 (via csa/is), if they ask for 14k back, this is roughly £350 a month over the 3.5 years. Thus the IS are making a HUGE profit.

Any maintanance paid should reduce the amount of benefits payable but since the amount of benefits she should have received were only £20 a week or so then the should get to keep the extra maintanance...

You don't recieve that much....not in 2006 anyway! The most IS for a single parent is £57 (ish) a week. Any money paid for the child/dren is through child tax credits.


What about housing benefit and CT benefit? Don't forget, if she was on Income Support, she probably would have had most if not all paid for her.

She would have probably been better off financially by stopping her IS support claim, declaring her work, keeping the maintenance, claiming working tax and child tax credits AND applying to see how much housing ben and CT ben she would still get.

suelees1

Without full details it's really hard to comment but my advice is to appeal within one month as she has no idea how they have arrived at the figures.

Did her applicable amount include the child or was she just claiming IS for herself as incapable of work due to illness? If either of these then she would have been entitled to more IS then the basic £59.15 and this might be why her benefits payments seem higher than normal.

If she was claiming IS as incapable of work but actually worked then the DWP could consider she wasn't entitled to any IS at all. The decision here would probably be based on the work not coming under the permitted work rules.

However if she was simply claiming the basic IS as a lone parent and not as incapable then they she will have an earnings disregard of £20.

Her HB and CTB will be affected if they are saying she was not entitled to any IS throught the whole period. The DWP will automatically inform the LA. However even if she was entitled to any IS at all throughout then she still gets full HB and CTB.

There is no maintenance disregard if it was an arrangement under the old rules. It only changed about 3 years ago. I can't remember the date off the top of my head but any maintenance arrangement in place prior to 3 years ago don't have £10 ignored.

It is very important she obtains legal advice. Morglin has attached some links - either the CAB or similar or a local law firm which specialises in benefit issues.

Some postings suggest she contacts the DWP to offer to repay but at this stage it is not appropriate as there are queries about the figures. She should appeal. Even if she repaid it's not the end of it. She might hear months down the line that they still intend to prosecute.