DHP and backdated HB

925dancer

I have sort of asked this question before but am coming up against a brick wall with the council and want to know if I have the right bee in my bonnet!

I applied for PIP July last year. An award of care would bump up my HB to the full 1 bedroom rate instead of shared rate. Whilst waiting the never ending wait for a decision I applied for and was awarded a DHP for the shortfall.

Fast forward to March and I was awarded PIP, housing benefit reassessed and put into new payment.

No backdated HB was paid as they have taken it to recover what they view as overpayment of the DHP. I have called this offsetting, they're using semantics and saying it wasn't offset.

I am convinced they are not allowed to do this and would have to invoice me if they wanted to recover the money. However, I'm not even sure they can recover it as there was no error made when awarding the DHP. They are also saying the manual on DHPs issued by the government is simply a guide and they can do as they damn well please if they see fit which is what they've done in using the backdated HB to recover the DHP.

I've been treated so badly by both the council and DWP that I want to make them play by the rules but at the same time if I'm wrong then obviously I won't bother.

Savvy_Sue

Can I please get this clear?

While you were waiting for PIP, you weren't receiving as much HB as you would have done had PIP been in payment. So you received a DHP.

Now you feel that you should have your HB backdated to cover this period, so effectively you'd be better off than if you'd been on PIP with the full HB?

The council's actions don't seem inherently unreasonable to me.

nannytone_2

thats how i see it too sue.
the OP had their rent covered by DHP and now want that extra money in their pocket even though they have incurred no extra costs

cattermole

Page 18
http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CCoQFjAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gov.uk%2Fgovernment%2Fuploads%2Fsystem%2Fuploads%2Fattachment_data%2Ffile%2F300220%2Fdiscretionary-housing-payments-guide-apr-14.pdf&rct=j&q=recovering%20DHP%20from%20backdated%20HB&ei=wbhkU8fzCIXkOsPYgNAJ&usg=AFQjCNHkUowHHlUN-ZP-OSaOoone7LT5XA&sig2=Hp-VkW4BQ6-U1Wpv641x-g&bvm=bv.65788261,d.ZWU

Yes they should sent an invoice. Just refer them to the above document.

pmlindyloo

cattermole wrote: »

Page 18
http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CCoQFjAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gov.uk%2Fgovernment%2Fuploads%2Fsystem%2Fuploads%2Fattachment_data%2Ffile%2F300220%2Fdiscretionary-housing-payments-guide-apr-14.pdf&rct=j&q=recovering%20DHP%20from%20backdated%20HB&ei=wbhkU8fzCIXkOsPYgNAJ&usg=AFQjCNHkUowHHlUN-ZP-OSaOoone7LT5XA&sig2=Hp-VkW4BQ6-U1Wpv641x-g&bvm=bv.65788261,d.ZWU

Yes they should sent an invoice. Just refer them to the above document.

Would this be classed as an overpayment though?

From what the OP has said the DHP was made whilst she was waiting for a decision about a PIP claim which would have given her the right to a one bed LHA rate rather than shared rate. When the PIP decision was made the HB was backdated to the original DHP award then 'cancelling out' the need for DHP.

Even if this could be classed as an overpayment then the guidance says that it cannot be taken from ''future?'' HB not retrospectively.

In this particular instance I am particularly puzzled as to why the OP thinks she is entitled to the backdated HB (in her pocket as it were) Personally I think the council were more than reasonable to award her DHP in these circumstances as they would have not been totally certain that the PIP award would be given.

nannytone_2

this probably isnt going to make sense, but i know what i mean

by receiving the backdated housing benefit, the OP will be treated as if she had been entitled to the higher amount the whole time since her PIP claim.
as her rent would be cobered, she would not have received DHP.

so .... she can only really expect to have it one way or the other.
she cant expect to be entitled to the full rent paid by hb and also be entitled to DHP for the same time period

Indie_Kid

You are making sense, Nanny.

cattermole

I"m not saying they should be paid twice or expect to be. The OP is questioning how they recover and the legalities of it.

They cannot recover from back dated HB automatically it is a benefit and DHP is not.

They do not have the legal power to get the money back this way and yes its a payment they want back of course and should get back but they do not have IMO the legal power to take it without consent from back dated HB.

nannytone_2

the simplest way would be to offset it, but that doesnt happen.
i suppose they pay the OP the backdated HB, and then invoice them for the recovery of the DHP

cattermole

I think its wrong they can't recover it more easily and no doubt at some point the law might be changed in regard to DHP recovery and giving councils more powers.

The simplest way would have been to ask and get consent to take it from the HB back dated or yes as you say send an invoice.

I know that in Lucy's case that it was a condition of legal aid that we would not seek any backdated HB due over and above any shortfalls in previous DHP payments to the estate. And the reason this was a precondition is because of the lack of recovery powers for DHP and the intention of the case was not to make a profit.

But this was an agreement and therefore consent was given.

Therefore I have to agree with OP in that the LA is acting unlawfully in their method of recovery of DHP.

cattermole

I just want to add that not paying back the DHP is also depriving someone else who might need it in a similar situation it should go back into the DHP pot and the Council did pay it in the first place. But they should have gone about it in the correct legal way.

OP I would write to them stating you are quite happy to pay it back but that they need to request the repayment within the law as it stands and they have no powers to recover from HB and quote highlight guidance in the link above.

This us all happening because of the pressures on Council's finances/ DHP budgets and that has been made worse since the bedroom tax but they still need to act lawfully.