Rent Overpayment/ Refund- Advice Needed

TimesTheyAreAChangin

Would really appreciate some advice. My mum is claiming housing benefit, and always had to contribute to her rent due to the bedroom tax, however since she turned pension age she gets full housing benefit. However, her council did not inform her of this for 4 months, so for July, August, September and October she had still been paying £118 to her Housing Association for part of her rent. Surely she should be refunded this by her Housing Association as she was paying when she shouldn't have been? But her housing Association is adamant they will not refund her the 4 payments she made.

Is this correct? Any advice would be much appreciated.

calcotti

If your rent account is in credit and she is getting full HB the HA should reimburse her. What justification have they given for not doing so (or haven’t they given a reason)?

TimesTheyAreAChangin

They said "You will see you had credit of £354.24 after the Housing benefit was paid. If we refunded you this amount your account would have gone into arrears."

 But she was paying toward her rent when she shouldn't have been because she wasn't informed. So, had she been informed and stopped paying, her full housing benefit would have been being paid anyway and they wouldn't have asked her for any extra payment so I'm really confused.
She made 4 payments of £118 when she shouldn't have.

Robbie64

Go back to the HA and ask again for the money to be paid back to her. The excuse the HA gave isn't even a good excuse (assuming there were no rent arrears on the account). HA's can be very awkward when it comes to paying money back to a tenant from a rent account.

TimesTheyAreAChangin

I have asked them now 3 times and they keep giving me the same answer every time, that they can't refund mum because her account always needs to be 4 weeks in credit. This seems very unfair, as this is her money and she shouldn't have paid it. I don't know what else to do?

MovingForwards

Does she need to be in credit by a couple of weeks at all times? Details will be in the tenancy agreement.

calcotti

The housing benefit is, I think, paid in arrears. If you are liable to pay weekly this means that you are in arrears for most of the time. The HA has to tolerate this but it appears they have now taken the opportunity to hold the money back to keep the account in credit at all times. That seems unfair to me.

Robbie64

calcotti said:

The housing benefit is, I think, paid in arrears. If you are liable to pay weekly this means that you are in arrears for most of the time. The HA has to tolerate this but it appears they have now taken the opportunity to hold the money back to keep the account in credit at all times. That seems unfair to me.

This is why HA's always use the 4 weeks in credit excuse. Housing Benefit is paid 4 weekly in arrears which causes the rent account to be in arrears by varying amounts during those 4 weeks (the arrears get larger at the 4 weeks pass by until by the final week it is 4 weeks in arrears). By keeping an account 4 weeks in credit this never arises though it does mean that on the Monday when the HB payment arrives from the council (payable to the previous week) the rent account will be 7 weeks in credit.

Spoonie_Turtle

Robbie64 said:

calcotti said:

The housing benefit is, I think, paid in arrears. If you are liable to pay weekly this means that you are in arrears for most of the time. The HA has to tolerate this but it appears they have now taken the opportunity to hold the money back to keep the account in credit at all times. That seems unfair to me.

This is why HA's always use the 4 weeks in credit excuse. Housing Benefit is paid 4 weekly in arrears which causes the rent account to be in arrears by varying amounts during those 4 weeks (the arrears get larger at the 4 weeks pass by until by the final week it is 4 weeks in arrears). By keeping an account 4 weeks in credit this never arises though it does mean that on the Monday when the HB payment arrives from the council (payable to the previous week) the rent account will be 7 weeks in credit.

Would that be a good opportunity to request the relevant refund?