I have a client who has been overpaid HB/CTB back to 2004 due to failure to disclose income from a local gov pension. Client has some learning difficulties and the many HB/CTB claim forms & postal reviews have always been completed by either a LA officer, or client's carer.
Client's carer lives with the client & both claim HB/CTB separately. To complicate matters further, client & her carer had a joint bank account until last yr into which the pension was paid. The LA has therefore decided that the overpayment is recoverable from both our client and her carer as she failed to disclose the pension. I have requested copies of all bank statements submitted to the LA but none of these show the pension as none covered a full month!
I have an appeal 22.1.08 which both client & her carer are to attend - both recoverability, and the person from whom the overpayment is to be recovered from is to be considered.
Client's leaning difficulties are obviously a major factor - and also the fact that the LA continued to pay HB/CTB despite repeated requests for full bank statements which they never received.
Does anyone have any other ideas which may help, or relevant commisioners decisions? Any advice gratefully received.

Perhaps I'm looking at it from the perspective of the LA, but I think it would be difficult to 'win' at appeal. For the overpayment to be unrecoverable you have to demonstrate it was caused by an act or ommission by the authority which the claimant did not contribute to. By failing to declare the income on her application forms (whether deliberately or not) she contributed to the fact that the LA did not take the income into account.

As to the LA continuing to award HB despite not receiving bank statements, I'd have a look at CH 69/2003 and especially CH 2794/2004 (see below).

Quote:
A failure to operate the (verification) framework (properly or at all) is capable of being a mistake by omission for the purposes of regulation 99(3). However, there is nothing in the nature or function of the framework that overrides a claimant’s responsibility to answer the questions on claim forms accurately and completely. It does not affect the principle of dual causation.

Mon 21-Jan-08 12:16 PM by stainsby

Unless the carer is also an appointee, there is no duty on her to disclose the pension, although if the completed the forms it may well be that she misrepresented a material fact and the overpayment could be recoverable from her. The LA will need to be clear as to whether it is relying on misrepresentation or failure to disclose

As the LA completed some of the forms, there is then a question as to whether or not the alleged overpayments were caused by a mistake by the LA officer concerned.

The circumstances may be similar to those considered by Mr Commissioner Angus in CIS/5177/1998 where he allowed an appeal in circumstances where an income support application had been incorrectly completed by an officer.