Overpayment of housing benefit

dippy3103

Accusing anyone of "money laundering" is out of order & you are right to complain about that aspect.

As regards the money, the wording of your post suggests that the money was paid out to your Mum. It was then paid into an account in her name, getting a good rate of interest because it was represented to the bank that was her money.

Write to the council and ask for a "statement of reasons" for the overpayment. I also suggest you ask them if they have done a deminiaturation of capital calculation and applied it to the overpayment and if not, why not.

In my opinion you are unlikely to be able show that your mum was not the beneficial owner of the capital, but the DOC calculation may well reduce the overpayment.

dippy3103

This may help..
http://www.neilbateman.co.uk/letters/Diminution%20of%20capital%20calculation%20template.xls

missbiggles1

steve811 wrote: »

First all of all thank you for your compassion and understanding! My finances are a mess but we live within our means and at the time I knew if I had that £4000 it would go on things we did not need. On the other hand I had children who will want to go to university in the next couple of years and mum was holding that for me so we did not use it. Any compliance officer is welcome to look at my finances and try and find any extra money we have, I certainly cant! To those of you who say she has committed fraud, bear this in mind. When she applied for benefits after my fathers death in 2013 she was helped by Age Concern and their people, who were fully aware what insurances were coming and being paid out. Their attitude was that we did not have to declare it as it was not hers. We are talking about a 77 year old widow of a man who worked all his life and religiously all his and her bills, not a scrounging low life who deliberately cons the system.

If she told Age Concern that your father had left this money to you then that's what they'd base their advice upon. You can only expect accurate advice if you give people accurate information.

steve811

dippy3103 wrote: »

This may help..
http://www.neilbateman.co.uk/letters/Diminution%20of%20capital%20calculation%20template.xls

That link appears to be broken but your advice is much appreciated and will be put to use, Thanks.

missbiggles1

steve811 wrote: »

That link appears to be broken but your advice is much appreciated and will be put to use, Thanks.

It's really daft to thank someone just because they've written something that you want to be true, particularly if you can't even read their advice.

steve811

missbiggles1 wrote: »

It's really daft to thank someone just because they've written something that you want to be true, particularly if you can't even read their advice.

I was talking about his previous post, not the link.

bigbill

Did mum get Pension Credit Guarantee following dads death?

konark

The £14k bill is for all the HB your mother has claimed in the last 3 years since your father died, which seems high if she only has a 1-bedroom HA flat.

The problem is your mother doesn't have £16k of capital, she owes the council £14k so she has virtually no capital. At some point in the last 3 years, if your mother had been paying full rent , she would have gone under £16k and possibly subsequently under £10k. The council have not taken this into account.

Alice_Holt

konark wrote: »

The £14k bill is for all the HB your mother has claimed in the last 3 years since your father died, which seems high if she only has a 1-bedroom HA flat..

Not necessarily. The OP stated that she was receiving "full housing benefit and full reduction in council tax". So, say rent of £70 pw and council tax of £85 pm would amount to £14k over 3 years.

Alice_Holt

konark wrote: »

The problem is your mother doesn't have £16k of capital

How do you know that?
The OP stated "in August .... she was asked to fill in a means form. Following that her benefits were stopped and she was asked why she had so much money in savings".
This suggests to me that she had over the £16k limit. The OP has not disclosed how much capital his mother now has.