CT and HB overpayments

brimau_2

Can anyone please help me with this problem??? I am very stressed and upset that I may have gone BR in vain!!

tigerfeet2006

It might be worth getting intouch with your local MP and Town Councillor and see what they can do for you.

Also get back on to your OR and ask them to point out what it says in their own paperwork and he wants them to stop harrassing you. Might work.

diablobear

If you got they're help in the first place go back to the NDL, CCCS or CAB and see if they can advise how to handle this, they help after BR too!!
Did they tell you that it would be included, when you first went to them?
You could contact the Insolvency Service, get them to confirm to you that you have read their guide correctly and then point out to them that your OR office doesn't agree & see what they suggest.

brimau_2

It was the British Legion who informed that these are incorporated into BR. The RBL also paid for my BR fees. Thanks Diablobear and Tigerfeet2006. I think I had better contact the Insolvency Service as I don't think i am going to get very far with the people I am currently dealing with at this end. The problem seems to be that everyone reads and interprets things in their own individual way!!

tigerfeet2006

It's amazing how one bit of writing can be interpreted in so many different ways by different people.:rolleyes::rolleyes:

brimau_2

Its so bl**dy frustrating!!!!

diablobear

Well it's the Insolvency Service's publication so if they can't confirm it then I guess no one can!!
I must admit, I have had to read it several times to draw my own conclusion. As it doesn't say in black & white -
if the provider is unable to recover these payments from current or future payments whilst you are bankrupt then they are included in your bankruptcy and you will be released from these debts upon discharge.

So I feel contacting the Insolvency Service to clarify this, would probably be your best bet as a starting point.

Good luck, let us know how you get on.

brimau_2

Its my first task in the morning. Fingers crossed that I can actually get someone to speak sense/clarify this living nightmare for me.

savagevixen

These issues are exactly the one's I outlined in your original post pre-bankruptcy. My OR consulted her boss, and informed me that there was nothing they could do bar advise the Housing Benefit Office to be fair in their recovery.
Due the period we were undischarged, my husband worked but with a young family we still received HB. I did not miss or mind the £10 per week they deducted, but I did feel slighly peeved that my £7500 amount of BR, was whittled down to under £5000 when the overpayments were deemed repayable.
Now that we are out of area, I no longer receive any benefits from that council. The HB department want the remainder repaid. The council tax was written off up to date of BR, so that was ok.
Following the last thread about HB on here, I contacted the relevant office. I was told by some chap to suspend the Standing Order, and wait for the Debt Recovery Offeicer to contact me. She did not. I then sent a letter. I explained why I had suspended the payment, and outlined my reasoning and my understanding that the money was now non recoverable. I also enclosed a copy of the 'circular'.
I received a letter back asking for proof of our dates of discharge so the matter could be considered.
At the same time I contacted and then wrote to the Family Tax Credits, regarding the £600 they have reclaimed from my CTC since I have been discharged. They sounded relatively encouraging on the phone, and again requested copies of BR and discharge.
They did sound like they knew what they were talikng about.
Unfortunately for us, we are one of many, the OR's deal with hundreds of cases, and to be honest mine had the view, come on you owe money and you can't pay it back, why should it be easy and everyone be lovely. She was fair and nice.

brimau_2

I don't recieved any CT and HB Benefits anymore. Not a penny. How, and from what would they deduct? As it stands at present the OR did her calculations and reckoned I had less coming in than I had going out (she was not allowed to include the Ch Benefit). For them to them demand £240 a month is therefore an impossible request.