DEDUCTIONS FROM UC HOUSING COSTS

I have been asked by a debt dept colleague to checked this out,  client gets UC but has been overpayment of tax credit from past period, tax cr overpayment is being deducted from UC housing costs leaving client a few pounds per month h UC.

we are in gateway area, can client come off UC and claim Housing Benefit fromt eh council in the old way.. we can the negotiate with hmrc to pay back the overpayment at a lower rate than UC are taking which is very high. UC will not negotiate a lower amount for the deduction.  Thanks

Hi - in theory I believe it is possible to stop the claim for UC and reclaim legacy benefits - see thread here - http://www.rightsnet.org.uk/forums/viewthread/9752/ although timing is crucial. But if your client would be claiming other benefits as well as HB, eg JSA, they would also have to not meet the gateway conditions or they would be passed back to UC.

The other thing is to challenge the recovery of the overpayment - reg 11 of the Social Security (Overpayments and Recovery) Regulations 2013 is clear that recovery should be up to the relevant percentage and their guidance says this too - see thread here http://www.rightsnet.org.uk/forums/viewthread/10838.

I raised this with stakeholders and they agreed there should be discretion and asked for case studies where it wasn’t happening so if it’s helpful direct message me the details and I will pass them on to see if it helps at all

Edit - just realised the overpayment thread was talking to you SocSec so just repeating myself! Nevertheless do send me the details if you want to

Daphne

thank you, yes we are still at loggerheads re. the amounts Being recovered but in this case we have a debt team working on it so I hope they can get some movement.
Can they reduced the amount of the housing costs element to claw back tax credits ?? I was surprised about that

The reduction is from UC as a whole, not from any particular element so yes they can take it. The award is not split into elements - they are just figures used to calculate the maximum UC - but the end award is just UC.

We have cases where they are taking a deduction from the Housing Costs Element paid via APA .... and the deduction is for .... yes, you guessed, rent arrears, and is being paid to ..... us, the landlord. 

But the two payments are coming at different times because in Live Service, APA and TPD paid separately.  So the rent officer can’t make head nor tail of the rent account, and the tenancy is, once more, at risk. 

These are cases where the personal allowance has been sanctioned.  Or as we need to think of it ‘the amount of the personal allowance’ has been reduced from the total UC award because of a Sanction.  So important to intervene and offer advice in cases of sanction…..

This issue needs raising.  In our cases, the debt becomes static overall, and is neither increasing nor decreasing.  But if other deductions began to be taken from the UC and reduced the APA, such as CTax arrears or OP repayments, then the whole system falls down surely?  Repayment of debt prioritised over current rent due to prevent homelessness?

That’s crazy Sarah, in practice they are simply paying a regular MPTL but in two instalments.  They don’t seem to have realised that MPTL and arrears payments are two separate items, both to be diverted at source from the entire UC award ... that’s what you want isn’t it.

On the point about ending the UC award and reclaiming legacy benefits, if the claimant would be in the legacy JSA client group I believe they can engineer a window of opportunity to revert to legacy benefits by claiming HB first and, while the HB claim is still pending, making a claim to DWP at which point they will fail the “existing benefits” part of the gateway:

(3) The claimant must not be awaiting–
(a) a decision on a claim for–
(iii) housing benefit

Some local authorities wrongly refuse to entertain a claim in such cases but in live service the claimant has every right to do it as far as I can see.