I have a client who turned 60 and transferred from Income Support to Pension Credit
She had applied for her retirement pension and the payment was delayed - during this time she continued to receive pension credit at the full rate.
Once the retirement pension was calculated the pension service failed to offset the arrears of retirement pension against the pension credit already paid and instead paid her arrears of RP in full.
She has been asked to repay the overpayment of pension credit under regulation 74
They have acknowledged the client is innocent and its an official error but are continuing with recovery and an appeal is pending.
We have looked at regulation 74 and believe that the appeal may be unsuccessful.
Is there any way round this situation - this is the first case we've seen however it can't be the only one.

section 74 offers little scope for appeals other than around mistakes in the calculation, unfortunately, although i vaguely rmember someone posting an ingenious argument here some long while ago...i don't know it.
and yes, they are common overpayments caused by failures in prevention of duplication of payments procedures.