Housing Benefit

Kermitthefrog

Hi
Some advice please. Some background information first.
Over 30 years ago my parents fostered my sister(she is disabled and still lives with them) every year someone from the local came out and did a benefit and financial assessment.
Nothing was ever flagged up and my sister claimed the benefits she is entitled to.
However out of the blue a letter arrived from the council saying my sister had been overpaid housing benefit going back to 2002 and now she owes the council more than £10,000.
How far back can the council claim back any overpayment? Also if my sister was getting benefit and financial assessment every year by the council is she liable to pay it back if nothing was ever flagged up about her getting overpaid?
Thanks

sevenhills

Kermitthefrog wrote: »

How far back can the council claim back any overpayment? Also if my sister was getting benefit and financial assessment every year by the council is she liable to pay it back if nothing was ever flagged up about her getting overpaid?
Thanks

It does really depend on what was said about your sister, people are not always 100% truthful.

antrobus

Kermitthefrog wrote: »

Hi
Some advice please. Some background information first.
Over 30 years ago my parents fostered my sister(she is disabled and still lives with them) every year someone from the local came out and did a benefit and financial assessment.....

I know that you can't claim HB for rent paid to a close family member that you live with. Are you saying that your sister was paying rent to your parents?

A close relative is defined as parent, parent-in-law, son, son-in-law, daughter, daughter-in-law, step-parent,step-son, step-daughter, brother, sister or the spouse or unmarried partner of any of these people. I don't know whether fostering meets that definition.

Kermitthefrog wrote: »

Nothing was ever flagged up and my sister claimed the benefits she is entitled to.

Obviously the council have come to a different conclusion,

Kermitthefrog wrote: »

However out of the blue a letter arrived from the council saying my sister had been overpaid housing benefit going back to 2002 and now she owes the council more than £10,000.
How far back can the council claim back any overpayment? Also if my sister was getting benefit and financial assessment every year by the council is she liable to pay it back if nothing was ever flagged up about her getting overpaid?
Thanks

The council can go back as far as it holds records for. It can only sue your sister for the last six years.

Has somebody contacted the council to find out why it thinks HB has been overpaid?

Alice_Holt

Some thoughts:
First steps are to get a full breakdown from the council of how the overpayment has arisen.

These are the circumstances in which an o/p cannot be recovered:
1) If it has been caused by the council's own error, and
2) If you could not have been reasonably expected to have noticed that you were being overpaid..

2 can relate to capability, so if your sister needed support to arrange her benefits, and was not able to do this herself these may well apply.
Does she have an appointee?
If so, then the appointee's capability and benefit experience will also be a factor.

If HB was arranged through the LA's benefit team then 1 may apply as well.

If on getting the paperwork, you think it isn't recoverable you can appeal their decision to a tribunal. (Note that time limits apply, so you may wish to raise an appeal. Get the LA's tribunal submission, and then decide whether to continue with the appeal)

You may also wish to raise a SAR to get the relevant info from the LA, here is an example:
https://www.herefordshire.gov.uk/info/200148/your_council/15/access_to_information/5
But this will take 6 plus weeks.

You may wish to get advice from Shelter or your local advice agency.

More info:
https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/housing_benefit/housing_benefit_overpayments
https://www.turn2us.org.uk/Benefit-guides/Benefits-Overpayment/What-if-I-am-overpaid-Housing-Benefit-or-Council-T

Kermitthefrog

She is fostered. But to us she is part of the family.

Kermitthefrog

We call her sister because she has lived with the family for over 30 years. However for benfits she is in fact a "lodger" and Mum and Dad are paid to be her carers.

tboo

Kermitthefrog wrote: »

Hi
Some advice please. Some background information first.
Over 30 years ago my parents fostered my sister(she is disabled and still lives with them) every year someone from the local came out and did a benefit and financial assessment.
Nothing was ever flagged up and my sister claimed the benefits she is entitled to.
However out of the blue a letter arrived from the council saying my sister had been overpaid housing benefit going back to 2002 and now she owes the council more than £10,000.
How far back can the council claim back any overpayment? Also if my sister was getting benefit and financial assessment every year by the council is she liable to pay it back if nothing was ever flagged up about her getting overpaid?
Thanks

Who was this?

Please see sight of any notification letters or get your parents to ring and ask why. The letter should say why the O/P has occurred.

A foster child is disregarded from a houshold and any allowances not counted so did they incorrectly include her in the household?

Mojisola

Kermitthefrog wrote: »

Over 30 years ago my parents fostered my sister(she is disabled and still lives with them

I would have thought that, even though they think of her as a daughter, for benefit claims she's an unrelated adult lodger.

Afraid_of_Kittens

Housing Benefit can be paid for a former Foster child residing in the household of her Foster parents - as long as the tenancy is commercial and not contrived to take advantage of the Housing Benefit system.

When did they start charging rent?

A_Nice_Englishman

So if I understand correctly you can't have a shared life caring arrangement and claim HB for a lodging tenancy agreement at the same time?

Becky1993devon

Sorry if it wrong place apparently housing benefit was meant to be paid to my landlord housing association on the 31st July but it hasn't been paid my housing association called me yesterday saying about they money I know I have to pay advance which I am paying 50 every 2 weeks from Tuesday and they saying I might have to paytop up which is fair enough but they saying if I don't pay or anything come though i be in trouble but I don't understand why they haven't been payed