LHA reduced as I had an overpayment over 2 years ago

[rockedboat]

What can I do?

I recently moved back up here, story is 3 years ago I moved to area for just over a year in June 2006 and in September started a college course but left after 2 weeks because I became ill.

I didnt get the first grant payment and was signed off and the jobcentre refused to let me sign back on for 5 months as a sanction(even though I was ill)

I remember seeing an advisor around this time at the office and mentioning that I had started a course but left right away due to illness.


I moved out September 2007 to start uni and came back up here for summer in June and recieved first payment of £307 in July, and I thought this was lower because it would just be around 4 weeks since I moved in give or take a few days but this month had the same amount so I rang the council who mentioned that I was overpaid housing benefit from September 2006 to January 2007 after a HB officer came to visit me and I admitted I was at college!(I never said that) and they closed claim in October 2006 but it wasnt updated to January.

If anything they have underpaid since I worked out they never paid me for about 6-8 weeks NOT overpaid.

[jeffrey]

Unfortunately, reduction/withdrawal of HB/LHA has no effect on rent that T is contractually obliged to pay to L.

[rockedboat]

Unfortunately, reduction/withdrawal of HB/LHA has no effect on rent that T is contractually obliged to pay to L.

Thanks but that wasnt anything to do with my question lol.

I wanted to know my rights on getting this sorted with the council, luckily I can afford the rent by using my income support to top up but leaves me with almost nothing to live off.

[Emma1973]

Firstly, do you have anything that says the claim was closed in October? If so, then you can push for an official error by the LA and refuse the overpayment.
Write to them immediately stating that you dispute this overpayment, and they should carry on paying your LHA whilst this carries on. Be aware though that this might just increase the amount of overpayment you have to pay back.

Or if you believe your claim was closed wrongly and you were entitled to it for that period, thats a bit of a different matter in which case you can use that to argue against an overpayment.

[rockedboat]

Well they say that they sent me a letter in January 2008 saying they overpaid me yet couldnt tell me why when I moved in Febuary 2008 to a different flat in same town why the overpayment wasnt taken from that claim just saying someone must of forgot.

They also couldnt explain why it took from October to January to close the actual claim down apart from saying they had a backlog and it was first chance someone got round to it.

[Emma1973]

Its irrelevant why they didnt tell you when you moved, just means they hadnt got round to sorting it out and they will ask for overpayments years later!

Still havent got my head round this though! Did you receive the money from October till Jan? If so, were you entitled to to it?
We need to establish whether you were entitled to the money at that point and could therefore argue you dont have to pay it back on those grounds
or
You did receive it, but you werent entitled to it so it could be argued that it was a mistake on the LA's account and you dont have to pay it back