HC was paid but not on tenancy? overpayment? Liability?

I have a client who is living in a LA property, and has a flatmate.
UC have split rent 50/50 for a couple of years, but they have now stopped his half as they have just picked up on the fact his name not on tenancy. Im off to see if i can get her half increased to cover rent. No non dep as on PIP.
Is this decision challengeable??
Also i suspect they may come after flatmate for all HC paid, stating he was overpaid as there was no liability in 1st place…
opinions??

Who is on the tenancy?
if flat mate wasnt and incorrectly claimed Hosuing costs for the LA tenancy, then almost def an overpaymewnt
Did the flat mate   hacve a rent lliability to the tenant of the flat? or were they a non dep just helping out wioth bills etc?

Why didnt the tenant query why only half =their rent was being paid ? Why didnt they point out to UC that it was just their name on the tenancy and they needed the full amount, (less any non dep charges, which are zero as PIP in place)
Think much will rely on what the original claim was based on/what info customer provided.

I think there’s another issue here. If both were claiming UC HCE as joint tenants but only one was on the tenancy UC should have checked this with the landlord through the landlord portal and it all should have come to light straight away.

If that’s what has happened (which seems to be what you’re saying) then if this was one of my tenants I would be arguing that UC should have checked this at the start of the tenant’s claim, and so they should have been paying the tenant full HCE from then. This looks to me like official error and so I’d argue it as an any-time revision which should lead to a large underpayment.

The same is true of the non-tenant (in reverse), but obviously the OP is still recoverable in UC.

If the HCE is being paid direct to the landlord by APA, then the UP should go straight to the landlord and result in a significant credit on the account (assuming the rent account was in order before all this happened). If the non-tenant’s HCE is also being paid by APA (on the basis of being joint-tenant) then the landlord should probably return it to UC (there’s really no excuse for them not knowing who the tenant is and who should have been getting UC).

But as Prisca says, there’s also the possibility of the tenant charging the lodger and the lodger getting their HC paid.

And it’s possible that the landlord is at fault; in which case UC needs putting right now, and ask for a late change of circumstances, and put in a complaint to the landlord and ask them to sort out the financial loss to the tenant and lodger.