Housing benefit - interview under caution

thingymegig

hello all

i've been asked to attend an interview under caution. the reason given is that i did not inform them promptly that my wife was working whilst claiming and recieiving housing and council tax benefit.

here are the details

1) 1st april - 2nd sept 2012 - i claimed JSA for my family, with a corresponding HB and CTB claim. there were 2 periods of a week where i was signed off then on again leading to some queries with HB and CTB.

2) 2/09/12 - i signed off JSA

3) 7/9/2013 - i emailed housing benefit office regarding the previous problems and to clarify when i claimed JSA. the second item in my email was as follows;

"I made my rapid reclaim for JSA on Monday 25.6.2012. I have since received JSA each fortnight up until 3/9/2012, at which point i signed off. please check your information"

4) after getting no response from the council i emailed them again in the new year on 7/1/2013. the payments continued into my account. email as follows;

"I am writing to inform you that i am no longer claiming JSA as my wife, xxxx xxxx , is now working full time"

i received no response. the payments continued.

5) In February we moved out of the rental house into a house that we bought. i emailed them to inform of the change of address and circumstances. we received a response later to say that we'd been overpaid from 25/2/13 to 24/3/13 (after we'd left the rental house) with an invoice to pay back £1015.40, which we paid back immediately.

we are happy to repay the benefits should the council tell us there has been an overpayment. it is likely, as my wife was working full time in a good job.

so some questions if anyone has advice

1) should i attend the interview or should i write to them to give my story and evidence (i have copies of the emails) ~? i don't want to pay out for a solicitor (as money is very tight) and do not qualify for legal aid, and will have to arrange child care to attend.

2) did i do enough to inform the council of changes to my circumstances ~? i feel that i did enough and that it is the council that has made a mistake.

3 what consequences do i face ~?

thanks in advance

Nada666

Why not just repay the payments you received from the end of September? I take it you did not spend them? If you did spend them why did you?

As you told them there will be no consequences - but they have to clear up the accounts.

elmer

In my HB dept, we do not accept a change of circumstances by email, or phone, we require you to put it in writing and sign it, as we respond in writing, so that there is a paper trail for any appeals.

Perhaps this has caused the problems with your HB?

elmer

thingymegig

hi elmer

merton council accept emails for change of details. i had also dealt with them previously via email (they replied by letter). they also responded to my final email when we bought a house and moved.

would not signing off JSA automatically cancel my HB and CTB ~?

should i attend the interview or write to them with evidence ~? as far as i am concerned it is the council that has made mistakes

Tiddlywinks

thingymegig wrote: »

...as far as i am concerned it is the council that has made mistakes

So, for those months where you were clearly receiving an overpayment you wrote to them again to ask to repay them?

You are blameless in this?

jacques_chirac

Attend the interview with copies of the emails and respective read receipts/ acknowledgements and a cheque for the overpayment. If the overpayment for one month is over £1000 then the total owed for the whole period means prosecution is a possibility - it is in your interests to comply with their request.

thingymegig

Tiddlywinks wrote: »

So, for those months where you were clearly receiving an overpayment you wrote to them again to ask to repay them?

You are blameless in this?

hi tiddlywinks

as you can read in my first post - i wrote to inform them of my change of circumstances and awaited a response. when there was no response i wrote to them again. and finally again when we moved house.

do you think that i was legally required to do more ~?

to blame for what ~?

thingymegig

jacques_chirac wrote: »

Attend the interview with copies of the emails and respective read receipts/ acknowledgements and a cheque for the overpayment. If the overpayment for one month is over £1000 then the total owed for the whole period means prosecution is a possibility - it is in your interests to comply with their request.

hi JC

i don't have email acknowledgments, but do have copies of emails sent from gmail. the council appear to have responded to my previous and subsequent emails. in the council's letters they give the email address as a form of communication and request that changes are informed in writing. is email considered as writing ~?

the council have not informed me that there has been an overpayment nor given a figure. we happy to pay back if we're told how much

from what i can gather i am under no obligation to attend the interview and some advice i've had is not to attend but to write to them with evidence. is this a good idea ~? i can't see that it benefits me in any way to attend but would it harm my case ~?

cheers

kelloggs36

you are not obliged to attend the interview. But if you do not attend then you will have missed your opportunity to present any evidence that you have in respect of the matter. You need to attend the interview with all evidence of correspondence you have sent. If they accepted this evidence then the case will be dropped however they will need to make further enquiries into their systems to see whether they did in fact receive any of your e-mail before making any final decision.