Old Housing Benefit Overpayment Problem

[Deleted User]

I received a letter out of the blue from housing benefit in a town in left nearly four years ago. I was receiving housing benefit, but everything should have been ok, I gave notice when I left the house etc. I was in emergency accommodation in the town where I live now (then moved into private rental).

Now Housing benefit have sent me a statements and letter saying I owe £496 in overpayment from over three years ago. They say they have contacted me before, but this is the first I have heard of the problem. No idea why they haven't contacted me sooner, I could have sorted it more easily then.

What do I write in the letter to make sure I find out how this overpayment occurred? Ideally I want copies of rent statements and housing benefit payments so I can see what has gone wrong.., its about 6 weeks rent as far as I can figure.

I have just been told by my present LL that he wants to sell this place so I suspect I will need to clear this overpayment problem up in one way or other as I may have to apply for social housing from the local council. In a way its lucky I have found there is a problem in advance of applying (I keep telling myself lol).

Housing_Benefit_Officer

You need to know the dates you resided at the property.

The dates they paid Housing Benefit.

Who they paid.

Why they overpaid.

Did you have to give notice to quit, if so can some of the overpayment be offset against any overlapping liability.

[Deleted User]

Yes I did give notice to quit - 1 month. But even if they decided I wasn't due HB for that period, the amount they say is overpaid is too high so I am wondering how it could have occurred. It was for a council property (in Wolverhampton), but it was a tenant managed estate.

Update: Managed to get someone to talk to me from HB in Wolverhampton. The overpayment covers the period I was in emergency accommodation in Kent. Dates match exactly. I did query with the HO who managed the emergency accommodation whether I could have two lots of HB for two different properties and he told me that this was ok (I asked because he asked me to fill in the housing benefit forms there and then and I was a bit worried about whether it was allowed). I am sure the HO who managed the emergency accommodation said he'd contact Wolverhampton when I queried the HB payements.

Apparently I have to appeal their decision to invoice me for the overpayment. I can send them a copy of the emergency accommodation licence paperwork. The quy I was just talking to from Housing Benefit in in Wolves told me they decided I'd been overpaid because Gravesham informed them I'd gone into emergency accommodation. He was saying I have to tell them I had no choice but to take the accommodation.., but surely that is something they will argue against as I did have council property in Wolves.., no one was accepting my reasons for feeling unsafe living there.

I have a feeling I have to be very careful with my words here as looking at it, they DID know I was in emergency accommodation, but decided I'd been overpaid HB even so. Given how neither Woilves nor Gravesham accepted my reasons for leaving the property in Wolverhampton, what can I say that will justify the two lots of HB being paid? Obviously, for me I was totally justified, and was only in emergency accommodation while my homeless case was decided. I found a private rental property with the aid of a Gravesham loan for the first months rent and deposit so the case wasn't decided as far as I know (but I was told it was unlikely to be found in my favour).

Morglin

Write a statement telling them why you had to take the emergency accommodation, and point out that they did know you was in it, if an HO did the paperwork for you, so they should have stopped paying the HB.

CAB may be able to give you some help.

http://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/index/getadvice.htm

Lin

[Deleted User]

No I think that you are allowed to have two properties paid for when, for example you go into a refuge or as in my case, emergency accommodation. I am not saying the HB should have been stopped.

At least, as I questioned the HO for this area, I should have been warned that you can't do this, and could have found a way to make arrangements sooner than three years after.

[Deleted User]

Its taken a lot of phone calls to Wolves Housing (and a different story being told every time) but I might be stuck owing £496. But I wanted to post on here to double check just in case.

When I made my first round of phone calls, I was told all I needed to do was appeal justifying why I had to go into emergency housing in Gravesham, abandoning my council house in Wolves.

Yesterday, I actually spoke to an unwilling lady working in appeals. It turns out that I had 13 months to appeal the overpayment decision which is now long gone.

The lady at Appeals told me my only chance was to get the debt 'struck off' or striked as she called it. She said 1) claimants had the responsibility to keep housing informed of any change of circumstances, and 2) to notify me of their decision re the overpayment all they had to do was send the notification to my last known address. They either sent the letter in May or April - been given two dates so far (I moved out of the emergency accommodation on 15th April). I never received this notification otherwise I would have appealed straight away.

I did not inform them officially that I had opened a homeless person case in a different borough or that I was given emergency accommodation for two months because 1) there was communication between the two boroughs to verify why I was homeless 2) the manager responsible for the emergency housing who insisted I filled in the Gravesham Housing Allowance claim form in front of him before being given the emergency housing keys said he would notify Wolves Housing when I queried the validity of claiming two lots of housing allowance for two different addresses. When I was in a refuge some months earlier, I didn't do anything other than fill in the second housing allowance form. It was never queried, it was never claimed that a housing allowance overpayment had been made.

I was told initiallythat Gravesham Housing told Wolves Housing I had been offered accommodation (but no mention of it being emergency housing), when I spoke to the Appeals person, I was told they had done a data search, and it had shown I had another address (the emergency housing address). However, if they had done a data search ANYTIME after 15th April, they would have been given the permanent address I have lived in the last 3 years. They can't have done this any time in the 13 months after the decision was made to allow me to appeal the decision.

Do I have any argument at all that I shouldn't owe this money?

Housing_Benefit_Officer

deannatrois wrote: »

No I think that you are allowed to have two properties paid for when, for example you go into a refuge or as in my case, emergency accommodation. I am not saying the HB should have been stopped.

At least, as I questioned the HO for this area, I should have been warned that you can't do this, and could have found a way to make arrangements sooner than three years after.

When you left was it your intention to return?

Housing Benefit can be paid on 2 properties where someone is fleeing violence but only if it is their intention to return.

Once someone decides they won't be returning then Housing Benefit will cease.

If you went into emergency accommodation and it was your intention to return then you can be paid Housing Benefit to the date you decided you would no longer be returning.

[Deleted User]

Thank you for replying HBO. It helps to know these things.

What I don't get though.., is if you give in notice on a property you are regarded as making yourself voluntarily homeless.., you obviously don't plan to return as you are looking for housing elsewhere. To stop yourself being regarded as voluntarily homeless you need HB for two properties (the original property and the emergency housing). But to get it you have to be regarded as intending to return to the first. Which invalidates your declaration of being homeless.

So how can one hope to have any success with claiming two lots of HB when running from actual or threats of violence? I really am not trying to be difficult.., I don't understand how these two rules can exist at once.., and will affect my case.

Also I'd be extremely grateful to know if 1) the fact that housing in Wolves knew full well why I was making a homeless case (Gravesham contacted them in January-February, I had a conversation with my housing manager in Wolves before I left about the situation although he seemed to completely change his advice when phoned by Gravesham) and 2) the lack of notification of the HB overpayment anytime during the 13 months in which I could have appealed will help me get the overpayment decision changed?I am on the electoral register, I received benefits.., any kind of credit or data search would have found me.

I do feel like I am being hung on rules and regulations that can be changed according to convenience of the relevant department.

Because it is likely that my private LL is going to sell the property I am living in, having this £496 debt could leave me and the kids homeless (unable to get housing help if I am unable to find another LL). I don't know what to do. Scared we are going to end up on the streets. It can and does happen. I can't pay the £500 off before this happens, and to be honest, I don't really agree that I owe this money.

To be honest, at the moment I can't see a good outcome to this situation, having real problems just keeping going. To discover this debt the week before my LL tells me he's thinking of selling the house we are living in. And I just can't get a consistent story out of any of the relevant departments.

Many thanks

[Deleted User]

Just to update, because I've had some mental health problems, I have a mental health social worker now. He says that he can make presentations to the council concerned that I wasn't well enough to do the things I should have done (I was in a bad way at the time, really was, dealing with the council here and being homeless was something I didn't cope with as well as I could have). So hoping there is a chance the overpayment will be written off. I still say that the debt shouldn't have occurred, Wolves council did know what was going on.., but such is life.

rogerblack

As a general point - yes, it is always your repsonsibility to keep them informed - nomatter who else may have told them.

However, you can only keep them informed of what they do not in fact already know.
The council can't be not informed of something - and not have not made an error - if they have in fact been informed by someone else. (It may have been that their action at this time should have been to launch a compliance investigation - however it was not to keep paying)

I have not read closely enough to see if this is a critical point.

In addition - as another general point - it is sufficient in law for them to contact your last known address with any query.
Make sure this was actually done - if it was not - then the time limit to appeal may not have started running.