overpaid CA, will IS be overpaid as a consequence ???

my client has a very large carer’s allowance overpayment, she became a student but failed to inform dwp, c £10,000 overpaid, I now discover client was getting income support on the basis of being on CA. as she was not eligible to CA does that mean she was also not eligible to IS for the period, can anyone think of any grounds to challenge an IS overpayment if one arises. ??? luckily my client also got beratement payment which means she received less IS than she would have done, even so it could add a few more £000 to the CA overpayment

Are you saying that your client only qualified for IS because she was a carer/receiving CA - - i.e. that she otherwise did not fall into a category of person who could claim IS? A good starting point in your case is probably this;

1. if she’s a full-time student for CA purposes, she a full-time student for the purposes of IS
2. it is only in limited circumstances that a person who is a full-time student can qualify for IS and being a carer/receiving CA is not one of these.
3. does your client fall into one of those limited categories of person who can get IS whilst studying full time?

If the answer to that last question is ‘no’ then she has been overpaid IS. I’ve put the issue in that way because if she didn’t disclose to CA she was a full-time student, she may well not have disclosed the fact to IS either…...
Even if she does come into one of those categories of person who can qualify for IS whilst studying full time, she might still have been overpaid of course…...

Thanks PC, I suspect she did not disclose to IS that she was a student, she only got IS because she was getting CA, I need to check if she could get IS as a ft student but I fear not, so the £10.000 overpaid CA could soon be double that amount.