HOUSING BENEFIT- RECOVERABLE OVERPAYMENTS
Members will be aware that under present Housing Benefit regulations, overpayments of Housing Benefit can be claimed by local authorities either from the tenant or the landlord/agent, regardless of the circumstances in which the overpayment occurred.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has always given guidance to the effect that local authorities should only recover overpayments from landlords/agents if they themselves could reasonably have known the circumstances in which the overpayment occurred. Despite the guidance from DWP, significant numbers of local authorities have made it their policy to target the landlord for all recoverable overpayments, regardless of the circumstances.
It was indicated recently that DWP intends to change the law in respect of how overpayments are recovered. The amendments will mean that overpayments caused by a change to the claimant's personal circumstances that the landlord/agent could not possibly have known about will be recoverable from the claimant, or exceptionally any
other person that caused the overpayment.
It is gratifying that DWP has made the decision to go to law to enforce local authorities to act reasonably, and wla look forward to members reporting in due course that their local authorities are acting in accord with the proposed law, which should be introduced in the Autumn of 2005.
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