Suspension of recovery of overpayments

Didn’t really know where to stick this post, but here it goes;

This is from HBINFO briefing - 6 April

“Recovery of benefit overpayment suspended
The government has announced that recovery of all overpayments has been suspended for three months. As such,  deductions for the recovery of Universal Credit and legacy benefit overpayments, Social Fund loans and Tax Credit debts will be paused. A significant number of debt recovery staff have been redeployed, with plans to release more in the coming days, as a result and will take up front line roles to focus on getting money to those who are most in need of support. 10,000 existing staff are being moved to front line roles and the department has announced it is recruiting more. Local authorities have been asked to stop referring HB debts to DWP (the position with Council Tax and housing arrears is unclear).
So should local authorities follow this example and stop recovery from Housing Benefit payments….including the weekly deductions from entitlement? That is a matter for each local authority. It would clearly help claimants if they did …either by the full amount or be reducing the deduction to a maximum of £5 per week for instance.”

My LA (Hillingdon) has decided to continue to recover overpayments of Housing Benefit at present, relying on claimants to approach them if they are in financial difficulty.

We may try to lobby them to change their stance.

What has you LA decided?