Housing Benefit - Closed Period Supersessions

Hi all, I would be grateful for any comments on the below scenario;

Mrs X was in receipt of HB, HB was calculated on SE income and WTC.
- 03/12/2020 - HB made a decision and notified Mrs X was no longer entitled due to her income increasing which took her out of entitlement. The income increase was due to an increase in WTC.
- WTC increased and stopped the award from 07/12/2020 to 20/12/2020 then due to a decrease in WTC HB could be paid from the 21/12/2020.

As the HB claim had been cancelled they have advised Mrs X to claim UC….. then

HB issued a new notification in error on the 04/01/2021 stating HB had been recalculated and Mrs X would be entitled from the 21/01/2021. The error from the HB department was spotted and the claim was closed again.

HB have refused a request for a closed period supersession with the following; “claimant provided further info in January which would have put her back into entitlement wef 21/12/20 only.  This would be new claim not change of circumstances as already a break in claim from the 07/12 - 21/12”.

I feel that the whole purpose of the Closed Period was HB wouldn’t need to end entitlement to HB and invite a new claim. This means a continuous award but with a gap in the middle.

HB state the decision is correct as the information provided was after the claim was closed so they could not look at a closed period and Mrs could not make a new claim and a claim for UC is needed.

My feeling is that the notification (in error) on the 04th Jan should allow the Closed Period to be looked at but I am not sure how to address this,

Thanks

A closed period is just that - at the point the claim is assessed , the period of Nil entitlement has ended and the customer is back in entitlement. ( A closed period of nil entitlement whicjh is in the past )

So your customers claim was assessed on 3 December and at that point, it showed entitlement ended on the 7th December, which was a few days in the future.

A closed period supersession would only apply if, on 3 December the customer had had a period of nil entitlement, but her circs had changed and awarded benefit again which started before 3rd December

So , was the decision of 3 decemebrr flawed/ made in absence of a material fact? ( so did the LA have the correct incomes/ circumstances for the customer? if they did, then the claim is correct and the claim ends. It cannot be “re-opened” or revived a few weeks later.
If the LA had some of the details wrong/ incorrect, then you can ask for a reconsideration to see if using the correct info changes the nil entitled decision