Employer overpayment, recovery and benefit recalculation

Lobat67

Just before Christmas my employer advised that they have been overpaying since June by £18 per week and require repayment.

Our household housing benefit and council tax reductions are based on the incorrect wage and the benefits received were reduced due income which was inaccurate. Can I request a backdated adjustment on the correct wage?

Housing_Benefit_Officer

Lobat67 wrote: »

Just before Christmas my employer advised that they have been overpaying since June by £18 per week and require repayment.

Our household housing benefit and council tax reductions are based on the incorrect wage and the benefits received were reduced due income which was inaccurate. Can I request a backdated adjustment on the correct wage?

No - your benefit was calculated on the income you received at that time irrespective if this income was being paid incorrectly.

nannytone_2

they wouldnt re assess the previous 6 month period.
housing benefit isnt based on a 5 pt 23 monyj;u imcome. it is based on what you are currently earning,
the backpay would affect the current months entitlement, but nothing before or after

Housing_Benefit_Officer

solbert wrote: »

That doesn't make any sense to me.


If it was based on too low a figure for the past 6 months, say by £20 a week and the employer rectified it by giving the employee a payment of say £520, are you saying that the local authority wouldn't want to re-assess the benefit payable on the correct higher amount, backdated for the 6 month period? Would they still calculate it on the lower (incorrect) amount because that is what was paid?


Based on how you are viewing it, it would be in everybody's interest to get paid at a lower amount and then receive a lump sum once a year to rectify it.


The local authority can't have it both ways.

No - they wouldn't go back and reassess your claim for the previous six months. Your claim is calculated on the actual income you received.

Your last paragraph is just idiotic. Your employer would be considered as colluding in benefit fraud by keeping your income low to maximise your benefit entitlement. And if it was in everybody's interest then why aren't people doing this already?

Housing_Benefit_Officer

blondebubbles wrote: »

Does that not then mean that as the income from now on will be less because of the repayment so they'd now get more?

From the gross wage figure we deduct tax, national insurance contributions and 50% of any pension payments. Any other deductions (such as attachment of earnings orders, savings schemes, union contributions, maintenance deductions etc) are not counted as deductions from the gross wage. The O/P would need to write to their Local Authority advising them the reason for the reduction and providing the next available wage slip to see if they would reduce the wage figure or not.

lukieboy96

If employer had been 'overpaying' since whenever and want money back, would their benefits not have been more?

Lobat67

Thank you for your replies. Would there be any mileage in having the employer simply reduce my base wage over the next few months for them to reclaim the overpayment, rather than simply making a deduction?

Also, a week before I was informed about the overpayment of wages, I discovered that through an "admin error" the council had been underpaying council tax benefits by £22 per week! They have corrected their error and I actually have a surplus in my CT account. As to err is human, might the benefit team accept that anyone can make mistakes - even them - and perhaps consider my case benevolently? One can dream I guess.