Another year another HB overpayment

n1guy

I posted last year about this happening. Basically over the years and tax code changes I never told housing benefits about this, I just assumed they knew and had a big over payment.

Now exact same thing has happened this year. Because of the fcuk up last year I made sure to phone and tell them about my tax credit changes and tax code changes. This week no money so I phoned up to be told a system error no problems, today in lands a letter £400 overpayment because of change in circumstances. Now I argued with them after what happened last year but didn’t care,

I’m just baffled how this can happen again even after I told them and even better is they told me they can see exactly what I get each week, I asked why keep paying then if you knew it’s wrong and she couldn’t answer. All I am told is to appeal. I appealed last time and it did no good, this service isn’t fit for purpose I think I should take it to my local MP.

Any other advice? We are now not getting anything until overpayment is paid

marliepanda

It’s not possible to update everything in real time. Someone has to actually process the change, so over and under payments will naturally occur.

n1guy

marliepanda wrote: »

It’s not possible to update everything in real time. Someone has to actually process the change, so over and under payments will naturally occur.

It’s the fact I phoned up and told them of everything and they still cocked it up. When I phoned on Wednesday to ask why my money wasn’t in they told me a pack of lies. Ah system error my !!!. I am so angry with them. But I’ll still be in the wrong

midnight_express

I'd take my custom elsewhere if I were you.

n1guy

midnight_express wrote: »

I'd take my custom elsewhere if I were you.

And where would that be exactly? We don’t exactly get a lot of money from them £10 per week but now we get nothing. Imagine had we been getting £100 per week?

We have a £580 over payment now, £180 remaining from the previous !!!! up. It was being cocked up from April last year, just after they discovered the previous !!!! up.

Afraid_of_Kittens

n1guy wrote: »

I posted last year about this happening. Basically over the years and tax code changes I never told housing benefits about this, I just assumed they knew and had a big over payment.

Now exact same thing has happened this year. Because of the fcuk up last year I made sure to phone and tell them about my tax credit changes and tax code changes. This week no money so I phoned up to be told a system error no problems, today in lands a letter £400 overpayment because of change in circumstances. Now I argued with them after what happened last year but didn’t care,

I’m just baffled how this can happen again even after I told them and even better is they told me they can see exactly what I get each week, I asked why keep paying then if you knew it’s wrong and she couldn’t answer. All I am told is to appeal. I appealed last time and it did no good, this service isn’t fit for purpose I think I should take it to my local MP.

Any other advice? We are now not getting anything until overpayment is paid

The first overpayment was self inflicted. You have nobody to blame but yourself.

In future this might help. For every extra £1 wages you receive you will lose 65p Housing Benefit.

n1guy

Afraid_of_Kittens wrote: »

The first overpayment was self inflicted. You have nobody to blame but yourself.

In future this might help. For every extra £1 wages you receive you will lose 65p Housing Benefit.

Yep I understand that and accept and learned my lesson which was why I made sure I did everything to the book this time and look what happened.

I think the HB people are just totally incompetent. I moved home in October 2017 and what a pantomime that was with HB. 8 weeks we went without payment, Moved to a different town and it just totally baffled them, one office argued not in our territory, another argued the opposite, this went on back and forward, then they lost the forms in the middle of it and as I say 2 months that took to sort out. And as I mentioned above phoned on Wednesday to ask why out payment wasn't in "Ah I don't see any problems with your claim, it must just be a system error, it'll be back paid in the next payment run" Thats what you're up against.

I am off to see the CAB on Tuesday regarding an appeal but it won't do any good, they are hardly going to admit how incompetent they are.

Craig1981

morning

for a £400 over payment to be issued when your entitlement was, i assume around £21.10 (less HBOP £11.10pw = £10), the changes would have taken effect 19 weeks ago. if you told HB then, claim would be suspended while they redo the entitlement, then send underpayment if any further entitlement.

I understand the frustration, and normally the overpayments in my experience are due to fluctuating incomes, part HB etc, however it is very clearly stated on any entitlement letter that changes should be reported immediately by the claimant.

LAs do do some data matching from DWP, but not done every week on every claim.

Craig1981

n1guy wrote: »

I am off to see the CAB on Tuesday regarding an appeal but it won't do any good, they are hardly going to admit how incompetent they are.

you can appeal, however it is their legal right to claim back any overpayment, regardless of whos error it was. you can request that the overpayment deduction be lowered to a statutory minimum of £3.70pw

if it was their error, they will still reclaim, but will assist you in doing so with lower repayments

n1guy

Craig1981 wrote: »

morning

for a £400 over payment to be issued when your entitlement was, i assume around £21.10 (less HBOP £11.10pw = £10), the changes would have taken effect 19 weeks ago. if you told HB then, claim would be suspended while they redo the entitlement, then send underpayment if any further entitlement.

I understand the frustration, and normally the overpayments in my experience are due to fluctuating incomes, part HB etc, however it is very clearly stated on any entitlement letter that changes should be reported immediately by the claimant.

LAs do do some data matching from DWP, but not done every week on every claim.

I did report my changes, on both occasions when the tax credits changed and when my wages went up with the tax code change, I got told on both occasions they already seen that. As well as that I asked last year when the initial overpaid happened, "Will this happen again" and got told "We use a new system now of real time reporting which should stop overpayments" Well thats working well isn't it. I mean if you are phoning them and telling them what more can you do?

n1guy

Craig1981 wrote: »

you can appeal, however it is their legal right to claim back any overpayment, regardless of whos error it was. you can request that the overpayment deduction be lowered to a statutory minimum of £3.70pw

if it was their error, they will still reclaim, but will assist you in doing so with lower repayments

We didn't get much anyway so its no big loss at the moment, We'll appeal it yes but as you say it'll still need repaid. The safest option is to get it paid off ASAP and just stop claiming HB as its more trouble than its worth if one of us ends up unemployed then yes its a crutch but until then we'll do without.