Housing benefit ovrpayment from 6 years ago

[monkeysquid]

Hi all,

 

Thanks in advance for your assistance, my wife has receive a letter today with the below information:

 

"My records show you have an outstanding balance of £279.72 in respect of ****** (address) for the period 7.1.13 to 17.2.13"

 

My question would be ... is this enforceable and would the statute barred rule come into play for the amount of time that passed?

 

Thank you

[dx100uk]

Yes

No

 

Send them their free sar on their site to prove they hold the required proof

[Will Goodfellow]

The statute barring period for housing benefit overpayments runs from the date of the decision letter informing your wife of the overpayment. It is possible the a decision was made years ago and she ignored or didn't receive the letter. Even so, as the period of the overpayment is up to 17.2.13, at the earliest, the debt would become statute barred six years from that date (England and Wales) so at least 17.2.19. And it is very likely any decision letter was produced after that date so the debt is not statute barred.

 

Even if the debt was statute barred, benefit overpayments can be recovered by deductions from current benefits or a deduction of earnings attachment without the need for a CCJ.

[dx100uk]

gov't debts like this are never SB'd

 

dx

[Will Goodfellow]

Benefit overpayments can be statute barred, the cause of action accrues from the date of the decision on the overpayment.

 

Section 9(1) of the Limitation Act 1980 applies:

 

"9 Time limit for actions for sums recoverable by statute.

 

(1)An action to recover any sum recoverable by virtue of any enactment shall not be brought after the expiration of six years from the date on which the cause of action accrued."

 

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1980/58/section/9

[dx100uk]

over payment of benefits are a gov't debt

they cannot become statute barred.

they can still recover them from future benefits or a DEA.

 

the only thing SB prevents in E&W is legal enforcement.

[Will Goodfellow]

Yes, they can be recovered from benefits or through a DEA, I wrote that in post 3. But they can be statute barred as no court action can be taken to recover the debt. Where a person is not receiving benefits or on PAYE, the debt is unenforceable, there is no requirement in law to repay the debt, and no enforcement action can be taken.

[dx100uk]

they don't need to take any court action regardless of the age of the 'debt'- that's the whole point.

 

in all effect..statute barring on a gov't debt is immaterial..hence, they can get it by hook or by crook.

unlike say a bank or a dca …

they can raid your future income and theres nowt you can do about it unless you make them prove they have the required documentation...hence the sar.

[Will Goodfellow]

The DWP and local councils will make a money claim where the debt is unrecoverable through benefits or PAYE, statute barring is very material in those cases. This debt is almost statute barred hence the letter, it is likely that the benefits and PAYE route has already been tried and failed.

[Surfer01]

I think we need to know the circumstances for the over payment. If the over payment was a mistake by the housing authority then they cannot claim it back as it would be deemed an "official" mistake.

[Will Goodfellow]

If the over payment was a mistake by the housing authority then they cannot claim it back as it would be deemed an "official" mistake.

 

It's not quite as simple as that, where an overpayment is made resulting from official error, the claimant needs to have a reasonable belief that there was entitlement to housing benefit.

 

Regulation 100 of The Housing Benefit Regulations 2006:

 

"Recoverable overpayments

 

100.—(1) Any overpayment, except one to which paragraph (2) applies, shall be recoverable.

 

(2) Subject to paragraph (4) this paragraph applies to an overpayment [F1which arose in consequence of] an official error where the claimant or a person acting on his behalf or any other person to whom the payment is made could not, at the time of receipt of the payment or of any notice relating to that payment, reasonably have been expected to realise that it was an overpayment."

 

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2006/213/regulation/100

 

That clause is difficult to prove.

[Surfer01]

It's not quite as simple as that, where an overpayment is made resulting from official error, the claimant needs to have a reasonable belief that there was entitlement to housing benefit.

 

Regulation 100 of The Housing Benefit Regulations 2006:

 

"Recoverable overpayments

 

100.—(1) Any overpayment, except one to which paragraph (2) applies, shall be recoverable.

 

(2) Subject to paragraph (4) this paragraph applies to an overpayment [F1which arose in consequence of] an official error where the claimant or a person acting on his behalf or any other person to whom the payment is made could not, at the time of receipt of the payment or of any notice relating to that payment, reasonably have been expected to realise that it was an overpayment."

 

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2006/213/regulation/100

 

That clause is difficult to prove.

 

The clause is fairly easy to prove if you have supplied all the documentation required, one relies on the benefits people to calculate the correct amount of benefit. They may over pay you and you would be none the wiser until they tried to claw it back. This happened with us twice over the years and in both cases we were able to prove that we had done everything correctly.

[dx100uk]

the op has not been back since posting

yet another thread disrupted by arguing ...