Is there anyone I can report housing benefit folk too?

n1guy

Afraid_of_Kittens wrote: »

...and?

If you did report a change they would have said provide documentary evidence of the change as soon as it is available.

I assume if you did have a telephone conversation you then sent in the documentary evidence of the change in your income as soon as it was available?

They said they could already see the change due to real time reporting. Which totally baffles me how I can be overpaid then. They see the change, I told them about the change they did nothing and now it’s my fault.

Afraid_of_Kittens

n1guy wrote: »

They said they could already see the change due to real time reporting. Which totally baffles me how I can be overpaid then. They see the change, I told them about the change they did nothing and now it’s my fault.

There will be a computer record of everytime WURTI was accessed to check information.

You can request details of the exact dates anyone from the HB Department accessed your private wage details from HMRC - there will be computer logs. This should tie in with your telephone call. Both HMRC and the Housing Benefit Department will know the exact time and date and the name of the user who accessed the information. (If the Officer failed to act then there is a 'training need')

Although even if they failed to act they will argue it would be reasonable for you to expect an increase in your wages would cause a decrease in your Housing Benefit entitlement and the overpayment is recoverable.

You could argue that the overpayment is an official error that you would not have been reasonable expected to know about.

This is the HB overpayment guide https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/696191/hbopg-part-4-recovery-of-overpayments.pdf

4.350 onwards might be helpful

Afraid_of_Kittens

Make a Subject Access Request under the Data Protection Act 1998 asking for the exact time and dates your local authority Housing Benefit Department accessed your wage details from the HMRC using RTI.

You can also make a separate request to HMRC to see when your local authority Housing Benefit Department accessed the information held by HMRC.

n1guy

Thanks for all your help guys. Going to do some research at the weekend

n1guy

OK, folks, I got a reply to my dispute. The first letter looks promising saying the appeal had gone in my favor. They then send another letter saying the exact same as the first about an overpayment and I can dispute it. Can anyone make any sense out of this? https://imgur.com/a/3YuXyqn

poppy12345

n1guy wrote: »

OK, folks, I got a reply to my dispute. The first letter looks promising saying the appeal had gone in my favor. They then send another letter saying the exact same as the first about an overpayment and I can dispute it. Can anyone make any sense out of this? https://imgur.com/a/3YuXyqn

The only way you'll get your answer is to ring them on Monday morning. It's impossible to guess the reasons why.

n1guy

poppy12345 wrote: »

The only way you'll get your answer is to ring them on Monday morning. It's impossible to guess the reasons why.

The mind boggles with these people. I'm in NI so they may be different than the English crew but these have to be the most incompetent people I have ever met. They will happily tell you a pack of lies without a second thought, and even when it is their fault it's your fault.

Newly_retired

Check the dates of the period of the overpayment. The second letter may be referring to a different period/OP.

n1guy

Newly_retired wrote: »

Check the dates of the period of the overpayment. The second letter may be referring to a different period/OP.

Well the first never gave any dates. £20 each week, it was at that time in September I got a payrise. And I definitely phoned them up to report this but again they said they knew this from tax credits. So why did they do nothing about it? OK maybe I should have caught onto something when my money didn't change, I guess I just assumed it wasn't that big a change.