Um, what on earth?

Jobseeeker

thats weird. do you have any other income apart from this job? eg benefits, help from family and friends?

VioletOblivia

Nope, the job is my sole income. Hence me not having a clue how that happened.

Bollotom

I had a similar letter. They said Change od circumstance as partner geting Pension. I gave all the letters forms and evidence at the time and they are all stamped as seen and copied. So someone has cocked up in a big way. However there's a couple of clauses copied below that I'm going to use to blame them and remit the charges, hopefully. :-)

All overpayments are recoverable unless they were caused by official error to which you did not contribute and could not have known that you were being overpaid at the time that the overpayment was made.
This overpayment is a recoverable overpayment in accordance with Regulation 100 of the Housing Benefit Regulations, 2006. This is because it was not caused by the Council or even if it was, it was reasonable to expect you to know you were being overpaid at the time that the overpayment occurred. The overpayment is recoverable from you under Regulation 101 of the Housing Benefit Regulations, 2006.
However , if you are able to provide evidence of your actual income, together with your full statements for all bank and building society accounts held during the overpaid period, the Council may be able to reduce the overpayment by the amount of benefit that you would have been entitled to had we known your true circumstances at the time that the overpayment occurred. This is called "Underlying Entitlement".

I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that they'll hold up their hands and admit someone made mistakes. Hope you get yours sorted too

VioletOblivia

Bollotom wrote: »

I had a similar letter. They said Change od circumstance as partner geting Pension. I gave all the letters forms and evidence at the time and they are all stamped as seen and copied. So someone has cocked up in a big way. However there's a couple of clauses copied below that I'm going to use to blame them and remit the charges, hopefully. :-)

All overpayments are recoverable unless they were caused by official error to which you did not contribute and could not have known that you were being overpaid at the time that the overpayment was made.
This overpayment is a recoverable overpayment in accordance with Regulation 100 of the Housing Benefit Regulations, 2006. This is because it was not caused by the Council or even if it was, it was reasonable to expect you to know you were being overpaid at the time that the overpayment occurred. The overpayment is recoverable from you under Regulation 101 of the Housing Benefit Regulations, 2006.
However , if you are able to provide evidence of your actual income, together with your full statements for all bank and building society accounts held during the overpaid period, the Council may be able to reduce the overpayment by the amount of benefit that you would have been entitled to had we known your true circumstances at the time that the overpayment occurred. This is called "Underlying Entitlement".

I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that they'll hold up their hands and admit someone made mistakes. Hope you get yours sorted too

Ha! I was trawling Google and found something like that. I had no idea I was being overpaid and no circumstances changed so I'm guessing they messed up mine, too. Good Luck!

Housing_Benefit_Officer

I wonder if they have awarded you a 25% single person discount and then reduced your benefit by 25% - hence overpayment being recovered from your council tax account?

Bollotom

Here's part of my response to the council. Saves me going there and shouting at someone and giving them an excuse that I abused them LOL.

In ‘A’I can only deduce that an error in not updating my records with the proffered evidence I had submitted was an error on behalf of the Council.

In ‘B’ It was caused by the Council as they are the responsible authority for ensuring their systems are fit for purpose and it would be generally accepted that their agents would act in an efficient manner. And that the IT system used is complicated and used by “Skilled” personnel, that probably would need a period of training which the general public would not have access to. This means the general public is not skilled enough to know when any or all benefits are correctly applied. We, as the general public have to rely on the skills of Council staff.
Therefore I would like to suggest that the Council is culpable in this instance and I could not be reasonably expected to know if an overcharge was occurring.

In ‘C’, I am enclosing evidence of actual income for the period in dispute.

paddedjohn

Is there a reason why you can only do 10 hrs a week work for the last 5 years? Is there a cut off fo the calculation of council tax benefit like there is for working tax credits?

VioletOblivia

Very well worded. Funny you should mention proof of pay. I haven't thrown out a payslip in over 7 years. I've just dug the whole lot out. Looks like my 'just in case' attitude might pay off.

VioletOblivia

paddedjohn wrote: »

Is there a reason why you can only do 10 hrs a week work for the last 5 years? Is there a cut off fo the calculation of council tax benefit like there is for working tax credits?

I've been unable to find a full time job sadly. The one I have was meant to be temporary.

VioletOblivia

Housing_Benefit_Officer wrote: »

I wonder if they have awarded you a 25% single person discount and then reduced your benefit by 25% - hence overpayment being recovered from your council tax account?

The single person thing rings a bell actually. Because I had already rang them prior to the huge over payment letter and the lady I spoke didn't seem to have a clue what had happened. She said how strange it was and that she didn't understand why they had gone all the way back to 2008.