Housing Benefit overpayment

chuckie851

I'm helping a friend who caused an overpayment of Housing Benefit by failing to declare when her savings went over £10,000.  She is 72 and is not entitled to Pension Credit.  This goes back to 2021, and her savings had been gradually increasing.  She has a chaotic lifestyle and it seems as though she was genuinely unaware of this for quite a long time.  She has now received 14 assessments, all 13 weeks apart.

My question is:  Would the Diminution of capital rule apply for an overpayment where the capital was more than £10,000 but less than £16,000?  It's a complex calculation, but the amount of overpayment each quarter gets progressively larger than than the previous one, and it appears they began a fresh calculation for each benefit period.  I'm not sure if I should advise her to appeal the decision.

HillStreetBlues

chuckie851 said:

I'm helping a friend who caused an overpayment of Housing Benefit by failing to declare when her savings went over £10,000.  She is 72 and is not entitled to Pension Credit.  This goes back to 2021, and her savings had been gradually increasing.  She has a chaotic lifestyle and it seems as though she was genuinely unaware of this for quite a long time.  She has now received 14 assessments, all 13 weeks apart.

My question is:  Would the Diminution of capital rule apply for an overpayment where the capital was more than £10,000 but less than £16,000?  It's a complex calculation, but the amount of overpayment each quarter gets progressively larger than than the previous one, and it appears they began a fresh calculation for each benefit period.  I'm not sure if I should advise her to appeal the decision.

Yes, it does, but normally it's a fight to get it as many are ignorant of that rule.