Hi, I'm in a regulated tenancy. The rent's just gone up. The council, who pay my rent (I was on ESA in the SG long term, now I'm on GPC), are now complaining they overpaid on the old rent. They are threatening to suspend my HB claim or get the alleged overpayments back, presumably by underpaying the existing rent till they think we're square.

They aren't offering any evidence of overpayment, however. My landlords, who have contacted them about this by email and ccd me on it, say the council always have been and are paying the correct rent, and have briefly broken down how the rent is arrived at for them. The council refuse to accept their figures and insist they've been overpaying.

I want to see evidence of what they've been paying so I'd like to do a SAR; to whom should I address it please?

I have the details of the head of housing benefit and they'd seem to be the right person. Perhaps you could either confirm that or make a better suggestion?

Many thanks,

SWLABR

IMO and having dealt with LA's in the past regarding their ''alleged'' overpayment of HB, I've directed my complaint to the HB department, escalated it, and got the local councillors involved, IF, the complaint hasn't been rectified to your satisfaction, then you can escalate it to the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO).

The LA should provide you with evidence of the overpayment, if they can't, or won't, then add that to your complaint to your councillors, and remark thatr their failure to provide satisfactory proof of the overpayment, brings into question their integrity and WILL be reported to the LGO to investigate along with your complaint of the LA.

I agree

Make a Formal Complaint to the Housing Benefit Department.

Also as its Housing Benefit you should also have been getting an Annual Letter from the Council (before each new financial year April) that breaks down how they reached your Housing Benefit claim.

If the Landlord is Housing Association again if rent increases before the financial year they will forward a letter breaking it down and if in the Rent there is a Service Charge element this may be what the issue is as generally Housing Benefit if on full HB will not pay the Service Charge element that is for you to pay.

There's no service charge. Thanks for both your responses. It's a regulated tenancy, both parties (landlords/council) are now agreed on what's been paid, however landlords are saying it's correct and council are saying it's been overpaid. There'll be no need for me to SAR them now it's recognised there's mutual agreement about what's been paid. You know how it works with a regulated tenancy? Rent Officer makes a determination, tells landlords, me, landlords give me paperwork for council, I tell council, they pay. Few years later, Rent Officer makes new determination, tells landlords, me, landlords give me paperwork for council, council points out it has different figure on it from what they've been paying. Hilarity ensues . The landlords have explained but council refuse to accept explanation. Council have asked me to go in for a chat, I've said no (because what do I know?) and agreed council can communicate direct with landlords because rent goes direct anyway but obvs I want to be ccd on all comms. I've been over the explanatory email landlords (biggest private landlords in the country) sent to council and I confess, I can't understand it either. Why two different figures for the weekly rent? I wrote to my MP initially about this as I've had trouble with council talking out their arse before, but they've written back and made me look like I don't understand it. Well, at the moment, they're right, I don't I'm concerned for my tenancy now