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Forum Home  →  Discussion  →  Housing costs  →  Thread

OVERPAID COUNCIL TAX SUPPORT, OFFICIAL ERROR

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HB Anorak
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Benefits consultant/trainer - hbanorak.co.uk, East London

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Total Posts: 2895

Joined: 12 March 2013

They can, and probably should, have a policy of some kind but every policy has to be able to accommodate exceptional cases.  Refusing even to accept an application from someone who doesn’t fit the policy criteria is simply unlawful.  The VT has jurisdiction to overrule them in line with the former President’s guidelines outlined above.

While the President’s practice statements and remarks in cases that he heard personally do not create legally binding case law as such (the VT being a first-instance Tribunal with lay members), they do have that effect because the VT will always follow its President’s instructions and those instructions will only be overturned in the event that a higher court finds them to be legally flawed.  Therefore anyone who considers that they have been incorrectly refused a discretionary reduction in their CT bill has a right to appeal to the VT against that; and the VT has the power not just to remit but to substitute a positive decision, even if that results in a person who is not covered by the published policy receiving such a reduction.

Incidentally referring to a reduction under s13A, or even s13A(1), is insufficiently precise because both discretionary reductions and CTR fall under that same subsection.  You need to drill down to 13A(1)(a) and (c) in order to distinguish the two reduction mechanisms.  This might sound pedantic but it could result in the VT declining jurisdiction of the wrong one is referred to in an appeal.

SocSec
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welfare benefits/citizens advice//ashfield

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Joined: 11 July 2013

Surely the VT decision will be challenged on jurisdiction. It is an open invitation for council’s to avoid responsibility for official errors