Council want £2,000 Ukraine 'Thank You' payments back.

OhJustSomeGuy

We took part in the government's Homes4Ukraine scheme and sponsored a Ukrainian refugee twice. I won't go into any of the problems we had to deal with, but will simply say the ordeal wasn't worth it and we really regret taking part.

Anyway, that was almost 2½ years ago and we thought it was all behind us. But now the council have sent us an email claiming they made mistakes with the Thank You payments and are demanding we repay well over £2,000.

I seem to remember that we were only paid what we were due, but because we don't have payment records from back then it looks like we have no choice but to pay what they ask, which will be 4 months' part-time salary.

My only question is, do we legally have to pay the council's invoice?

Alderbank

You might have lost your records from 2 years ago but the Council won't have.

Ask them for proof.

If the evidence is there, then yes of course you must pay it. Hopefully you can agree a payment plan. Councils are all very hard up at the moment and the Chief Finance Officer will have told all departments to scour their records for any overpayments still owed.

martindow

Can you not ask your bank for duplicate statements or download them from internet banking to be able to verify what you received?  You can then see if they tally with the council's figures.

Section62

OhJustSomeGuy said:

We took part in the government's Homes4Ukraine scheme and sponsored a Ukrainian refugee twice. I won't go into any of the problems we had to deal with, but will simply say the ordeal wasn't worth it and we really regret taking part.

Anyway, that was almost 2½ years ago and we thought it was all behind us. But now the council have sent us an email claiming they made mistakes with the Thank You payments and are demanding we repay well over £2,000.

I seem to remember that we were only paid what we were due, but because we don't have payment records from back then it looks like we have no choice but to pay what they ask, which will be 4 months' part-time salary.

My only question is, do we legally have to pay the council's invoice?

HMRC can go back 4, 6 or 20 years, so if you don't have records of receiving taxpayer's money from two years ago it would probably be useful to invest some time in obtaining that information yourself, in case you need it in the future.

Errors in payments may have come to light as a result of auditors looking at the council's records - if so they probably won't let it drop.  Given the hoo-ha over covid related payments I would expect extra scrutiny of where public funds have gone in all manner of ways.

silvercar

Ask them for their calculations and proof you were over paid. They want a repayment so the onus is on them to provide evidence.

Bigphil1474

I'd be surprised if they'd just drop you an email - sounds a little fishy. I'd expect for this, you would receive a letter explaining why they think it's an overpayment and also a ways to pay section and/or some sort of payment options. Even if skint, most councils understand that people can't just repay money like that easily. Can you contact the people at the council by phone to check with them? Check any phone number on the email is legit first.

Beeblebr0x

As Bigphil alluded to, emails can be hacked, as some house buyers have found to their cost.