A number of years ago advice agencies in Gloucester persuaded the City Council to adopt an overpayment recovery policy which means that except in cases of fraud, the maximum weekly deduction from ongoing benefit for a claimant on Income Support would be £5.80 per week. The Council are now proposing to change their policy and revert to the standard weekly deduction of £9 per week, which we are obviously very much opposed to.

The Council say that they are currently the only authority in the country which routinely accepts a standard weekly deduction which is less than the national maximum. Obviously they accept that we can still request lower rates of recovery in cases of hardship.

Does anyone out there know of any other authority which has such a policy or a similar one?

At 30(ish) LAs which I have worked at / with over the years, none have had a policy of routinely taking less than the presribed amounts.

I suspect Glos were very much in a tiny minority on this.

I know of no LA that does not take as much as it can lawfully get (in fact, I know of plenty that recover more than they are legally entitled to!)...

However, a way of seeking to challenge the decision whilst continuing to work in partnership with the LA would be to seek out the LA's ‘anti-poverty strategy’ document, (sometimes known as a ‘social inclusion strategy/policy’) and refer the appropriate manager to that document.

Most LA's have an anti-poverty strategy in place, and Gloucester is no exception. A quick Google search throws up their policy documents, and also their BFI report, (see paras 2.234 & 2.235 which it might be helpful to point out to the LA). I have posted the Google search link below.

If the HB/OP recovery manager won't budge, it might be worth having an informal chat with the member who has responsibility for the ant-poverty strategy (go through the member services office - the switchboard will be able to give you advice about who the relivant member is) pointing out that such a massive hike in the recovery rate might be against the policy thrust of the members. Officers have to adhere to the policy directions of members, and that approach might also bear fruit (sometimes in HB politics is all!)...

Hope this helps...

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=%22anti-poverty+strategy%22+gloucester&btnG=Search&meta=cr%3DcountryUK%7CcountryGB