Would appreciate some advice please.

My local authority have taken me to court on the basis of failur to notify a change of circumstances & obtaining an overpayment of housing benefit, i was found guilty & sentenced to community payback & fined. I have appealed this, as it is incorrect, i never needed to notify them as the person they say was living with me was not. Their conviction was based on letters & bank accounts etc being at my address.

I have recently sat down & gone through the numbers they have used, they are trying to reclaim around £10k, however the date that they used in the court conviction that this person vacated my address, they have not included in the recalculation & they have stated that i do not have an ongoing entitlement to HB, however if they had calculated this without this other wage included (after the date threy claim he'd moved out) i would have an ongoing entitlement of around £70 per week, plus they would owe me around £3000 from the date they stopped my claim, also they would owe around £2000 from what they had incorrectly included in the original calculation.

So basically they have taken me to court & had me convicted for fraud which is £5000 over what they might have originally had me charged for. Obviously i am appealling & waiting for a date at crown court, what effect might this have on their case? I'm thinking there needs to be an independant person clairfy the figures, who might i pay to do such a job?

I have recently wrote to the council underlining their error, in the hope that they will reinstate my HB & possibly deal with the back payment, but i'm really concerned that i do not win at appeal, i have been charged with £5000 worth more of HB fraud than i ought to?

Any advice on this case would be much appreciated thankyou xx

did you appeal against the overpayment decision to the tribunals service?