Help, Housing Benefit Overpayment, Rossendales, 1st Notice.

mypitchforksready

Today, I've received a letter from Rossendales Collectors saying that I owe my old council 300 pounds for a housing benefit overpayment made in 2005. They say that I must contact them within 7 days of the letter (dated 16th May 2008 (Today's the 22) to arrange repayment else "recovery will commence." Very nice letter with lots of red and black ink.

My circumstances are this:

I claimed benefits between early 2004 and early 2005,
I canceled my benefits when I started work,
In Sep/Oct 2005 I left my U.K job for a job in Europe,
Oct/Nov 2007, I returned to the U.K to reclaim my Income Tax for the period I was out of the U.K,
Early 2008, a friend from my address in Europe forwarded a letter to me in the U.K. This letter (sent to me in Europe where I wasn't) came from my old council and requested back 300 pounds from a HB overpayment. This was my first notice of the overpayment,
Also, I am a U.K citizen.

Since I was waiting for my Income Tax to be refunded I thought I'd wait for the refund then pay the bill. Well, Rossendales have now been in touch, I received part of my Income Tax rebate a few days ago and have to wait a few days for the cheque to clear in my newly opened check-in account.

My questions are:

1, The council should have known I hadn't lived at the address to where the claim was made because my ex-landlord would have told it so since I had only received one letter to advise me of the overpayment, and since this was sent to an address in Europe after I'd returned to the U.K, should this have gone to Rossendales for collection?

2, When my cheque has cleared, if I make repayment directly to the council using the Giroslip attached to the letter that they sent to the wrong address (in Europe), will they accept the payment? If they do, when would they inform Rossendales?

3, What do Rossendales mean by "recovery will commence."?

If anyone's curious, to the best of my knowledge, Giroslips from the U.K can't be dealt with from the country where I lived in Europe. Which makes another question relevent, why did they send I Giroslip to somewhere it isn't possible to use?

Please, someone help me with this.

SuziQ

Why not speak to Rossendales? I have had the 'happy' experience of dealing with a collection agency this week (Moorcrofts) and they were fantastic,really helpful.Do Rossendales give the option of contacting the council direct to arrange repayment? Where I live,everything is lumped in one advice centre and you can just walk in and speak to someone in that department.
'Recovery will commence' generally means (I believe) an application to court
initially,at which point charges will be added,so if you have the money I would just sort it asap.

please correct me if I am wrong,anyone!

mypitchforksready

I've dealt with collection agencies before. They're not the most easygoing people in the world; and tend to have the habit of not listening to people. They tend to be interested in getting "their result" more than referring back to the source that employed them (My previous experience was for something different alltogether).

I live many miles away from the council that made the overpayment so popping-in to speak with them would be difficult. Also, I don't want to speak with any party until I've established whether I might just pay via the Giroslip regardless of Rossendales being involved i.e I don't want to sponsor a collection agency via merit for the payment. If I know the Giroslip payment will be accepted and not returned to an address where I no longer live then, unless the council tells me I can't use it, I will use it.

dmg24

The liability is on you to a) inform the council where you had moved to, and b) find a suitable method of payment. As the council have not heard from you, it is quite reasonable for them to pass on the debt to a collection agency.

You need to pay Rossendales, not the council. An attempt to pay the latter will just cause you more problems. Give Rossendales a call and tell them when they should expect payment from you. There is no reason for them to be difficult with you.

mypitchforksready

I wouldn't have been aware of the need to inform a council my intention to move abroad under consideration I was no longer in receipt of benefits at the time I moved. However, I'm nearly positive I would have informed the council of my move from the area due to my Council Tax liabilities (but then, at the time, I suffered depression for which I was under my doctors supervision so I might have forgotten - I hope I didn't under pay that).

dmg24

mypitchforksready wrote: »

I wouldn't have been aware of the need to inform a council my intention to move abroad under consideration I was no longer in receipt of benefits at the time I moved. However, I'm nearly positive I would have informed the council of my move from the area due to my Council Tax liabilities (but then, at the time, I suffered depression for which I was under my doctors supervision so I might have forgotten - I hope I didn't under pay that).

Nonetheless it was your responsibility, and therefore it is quite reasonable for them to pass the debt on (they do not have the resources to be searching for people). Also, CT and HB are not always linked, so the change in information on your CT account would not necessarily be reflected on your HB account.

Give Rossendales a call. I am sure that they will be fine as you are offering payment!