Housing benefit & council tax support overpayment query

Baled

Hi

I have only recently realised that the build up of state pension and attendance allowance in my parents bank account means they're not entitled to the HB and CTS they're currently getting. 

I'm going through some bank statements right now to work out a rough estimate of what will need to be paid back before I contact the LA next week.
 
I'm aware there's the £10,000 threshold for pensioners and that each £500 over £10,000 equates to £1 extra income per week. Their HB is paid directly to the housing association every 4 weeks in arrears I believe so is this the timeframe that will be used to calculate what extra income will be applied to reduce the HB? 

How will the council tax support overpayment be calculated exactly? Will the LA just look at my parents capital month by month? 

I have the financial PoA for both mom and dad. Mom has Alzheimer's and is the sole name on the HB letters.

One thing that is concerning me is a yo-yo situation in that they start paying full rent/CT but then reach a point where they're under the £16K limit but then if they start claiming their HB/CTS benefits it will soon push them back over the £16K threshold again and so on. Any tips or advice on that score please? I will try to get dad to spend a bit more on useful/practical things for them both but it may be an uphill battle!

Is it better to pay back in one lump sum or on a payment plan?

Thanks in advance.

itsthelittlethings

If you’ve got POA, once you’ve paid the money back, is there anything you could treat your parents with so they spend a bit more money and don’t keep going over the threshold?

Just alert the relevant authorities to the issue and they’ll probably ask for bank statements and work out the overpayment.

HillStreetBlues

The council will want bank statements from when they first went over £10k
When did that first happen? when did they go over £16k?  how much per month HB &CTS?
Normally it's best paying in a lump sum as that reduces thee capital.
When trying to calculate the overpayment the diminishing capital rule should be applied.

Baled

itsthelittlethings said:

If you’ve got POA, once you’ve paid the money back, is there anything you could treat your parents with so they spend a bit more money and don’t keep going over the threshold?

Just alert the relevant authorities to the issue and they’ll probably ask for bank statements and work out the overpayment.

I am looking into whether mom could attend a day centre at least one day a week. I've also said to dad about getting a cleaner in. He's always really reluctant with any suggestions but I'll just have to get a lot more pushy and insist we give it a go.

Baled

HillStreetBlues said:

The council will want bank statements from when they first went over £10k
When did that first happen? when did they go over £16k?  how much per month HB &CTS?
Normally it's best paying in a lump sum as that reduces thee capital.
When trying to calculate the overpayment the diminishing capital rule should be applied.

The oldest statement we have is July 2023 where it went from £9.9K to over £10K. I would need to request older statements to check if July 2023 was the first time it happened.
 
There's some statements missing from mid Sep 24 to mid Jan 25 but going from the pattern of previous months I'm pretty sure they exceeded £16K in October 2024. 

CTS is £916 for this year.
HB is £85 per week.