Help Needed - Housing Benefit Overpayment

janinelal

Hi, i was wondering if anyone could help me. From nov 05 to nov 06 my partner was on incapacity benefit. As i was working part time they took my wages into account of this and we were informed that we was not entitled to any payments, but as he was still classed as being on incapacity benefit he would get his Ni paid for.

This left us on my wages, about £150 a week + child and working tax credits. With one small boy as well this was not a lot to live on so we applied for housing and council tax benefit.

We applied correctly, giving them all of the information that they asked including a letter from job centre confirming that my partner was on incapacity benefit, (on the same letter in confirmed that he was not entitled to payments due to me working, which we also informed housing/council benefit about in the application form)

Sorry for going on abit but i'm trying to give as much details as necessary.

We were told that becouse my partner was on incapacity benefit we were entitled to full housing and council tax benefit.

Great, we though, until in nov 06 my partner went back to work. Housing benefit decided to check with DWP if my partner was really on incapacity benefit. Why they waited a year and until he was back at work, i don't know! But, after much checking, letters sent with the wrong information and stress to us, they are now saying becouse my partner did not recieve and actual incapcity benefit payment during that time we were not actually entitled to housing or council tax benefit and have sent us a bill for £3500 for the apparent overpayment.

We have disputed this, as we gave them all of the correct information and that it was there mistake.

This is now going to a trubunal. And i'm scared that we are going to have to pay it all back. They are asking for the council tax over payment now, making our council tax £250 a month, which we just can not afford.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!!!

teeni

Hi Have you considered contacting an advice service like cab as they often represent for free at tribunals/appeals I used to regularly whilst i worked with them.

If you have all your paperwork which shows that you provided all the correct information and they made an error you should have a good chance of success as official errors are unrecoverable.

Incapacity benefit is also not a benefit that means you are automatically pass ported to full Housing benefit council tax benefit but is counted as income so l/a should have verified through the benefits agency what level of benefit you were receiving in order to assess the claim.

IF you have your award notices from that time they should show all income included in the assessment.

good luck

Teeni

real1314

Hi

Let's start by clearing things up a bit:

1. Incapacity Benefit (IB) would not have been affected by your wages. If IB was not payable it would most likely have been because his NI contributions were not sufficient. I think that your partner was more likely to have been claiming Income Support (IS) on the basis of being incapable of work. The IS would have been affected by your wages.

2. As we've established (assuming the above is correct?) that your partner was not actually receiving IS or payments of IB, then what could you council have mis-interpreted? Well it could be that they included an allowance for a "Disability Premium" in your HB assesment. This should be included if someone is receing the Long Term rate of IB (aka IB(LT)), or any form of DLA, or a few other benefits, OR if they have been "signing sick" (i.e.sending on sick notes or been treated as doing so) for over 12 months.

I suspect they've mixed up the IB / IS thing to some degree.

Have they said exactly why the HB has been stopped and classed as overpaid? Had he been claiming as sick for over 12 months?

kelloggs36

If you have a copy of the fomr which states what had been claimed and that no payments were being made due to your income then it should be official error as you provided all the info.

janinelal

First of all, thanks for replying!

Sorry if i did not make things clear, just really stressed about this at the moment.

Your right, sorry, he was on income support due to being incapable of work. He used to be on incapacity benefit, but this changed to income support shortly before we moved in together in nov 05. We went to job centre together and told them he was now living at my house, which was when they told us he was not entitled to any payments due to me working.

It confirms this on the letter we sent to housing benefit in nov 05. We recieved a letter back saying we were entitled to full housing benefit/council tax benefit 'due to my partner being on income support'.

I think your right about the whole mix up with IB and IS. Its only now i'm know the difference.

The problem now is, is this there mistake or ours? Not sure what i put on the original application form, IB or IS, even if we did send a letter confirming all the details for IS.

Sorry if this all sounds confussing, i'm very confussed myself!

Do you think we will have to pay it all back?

And, he went back to work in nov 06, thats why the housing benefit stopped.

janinelal

Hi, me again.

I've just asked my partner to go to the jobcentre to get a letter confirming dates for incapacity benefit/income support.

They have told him he was on incapacity benefit and income support for the nov 05 to nov 06 period.

More confussed than ever now!!!

So i've just made an appointment to see a welfare rights advisor for 11 o'clock on monday.