I have a client who has been in receipt of savings credit of about £5 p/w since Oct 03. I recently discovered they were counting our charitable payments as income and following correspondence etc they have admitted official error and paid her £600+ arrears (all savings credit - no guarantee payable).

So to HB! I asked them to do an anytime review back to Oct 01 (when we started making charitable payments)due to official error as their receptionist always said to her - it doesn't matter if its from a charity - it's counted as unearned income... She provides the same proof to HB as she has to PC. They advised me they could only remove this payment once they'd confirmed with PC the assessed income.

They have now reassessed her H. benefit without the charitable payment - but only from 29.3.04 which they say is the date pension service removed the charitable payment from their assessment (wrong - they've confirmed 6.10.03 to me & paid arrears accordingly). However, the next H. benefit assessment from May 04 includes the INCREASED savings credit amount which wasnt actually in payment at the time. I understood this should only be taken into acount from when increased payments are in force, which was actually Jan this year.

Am i right on this? Any advice/guidance appreciated.

Look at HB Reg 68B para 2(b). The decrease in HB these circumstances takes effect from the date the LA are notified by the pensions service.

During the period where pension credit is payable, the LA will be required to use the pensions service assessed income figure, but for the period before pension credit (ie before Oct 03), the LA should use their own figure and should correct their own official error and pay the increased HB