I have a client who was assisted by a previous agency in September 2005, and HB was notified at that time that the claimant and her husband had been living separately via a judicial separation from the court in October 2000. HB then notified the client in November 2005 that her ex partner was treated as a non dependant from 13/10/2003. this caused an overpayment. The client had still been putting her ex partner as a partner on the form, so this had caused some confusion. there is also a problem with an award of Tax credits awarded from 04/04 to 04/05 in which husband and wife incomes have been assessed together, and in an award letter of 09/07 , the husbands earnings were again taken ionto account as a non dependant. the client had suffered DV,and the ex partner has not assisted her financially when it came to repaying the overpayment- ( He has now been excluded from the home)I want to know whether there are grounds to possibly challenge further or request a partial write off of the overpayment. I also am worried that further requests will leave to the overpayment being backdated to 2000. Does anyone have any experience about challenging these overpaymets on the grounds of DV/ unreasonable behaviour, as the rules on this are not very clear.Any suggestions will be gratefully received.

The normal principle in family law is that a husband and wife who are no longer treted as a couple will generally be found not to be members of the same household - ie, they are manitaining spearate establishments/households under the same roof. Whether or not this is happening is always a question of fact. But if that is what they are doing then he is not even a non-dep.
I'm not sure how it normally work with JS rather tahn dicorce and whether HB is any different from IS, where the principle is that if a husband and wife are living in the same household then theya re treated as a couple even if two unmarried people in an identical relationship (eg, doing things for each other) would not be treated as LTHAW. Are there different rules for people who are leagally still married, judically separated but living in the same household (eg as carer and person cared for)?