HB/CTB overpayment

I have a couple who have an HB overpayment of over £5k.

cleint failed to disclose increase in occ pen. He has now been clased and backdated SMI for CT purposes.
What are the cjances of OP for HB being written of due to SMI.

He withheld all income from his partner who is now his appointee.

Was the overpayment in any way caused by an error on the part of the LA / DWP / HMRC?

If “no”, then the overpayment is recoverable irrespective of any other consideration.

It’s almost certainly worth checking that the LA’s assessment is correct and, if you wanted to make it awkward for the LA, there *may* be mileage in looking for “technical” errors in terms of the administration and/or notifications.  But, with the latter, the LA can lawfully simply start again and, in the long term, it is unlikely to benefit your client.

Also, has there been an error?  Did the clmt provide bank statements showing the income in question?  If so, it *may* be possible to argue the clmt’s limitations were such that he did not contribute to the error (by failing to disclose) and that he would not reasonably have been expected to be aware he was being overpaid.  However, the failure to disclose would make it an uphill struggle, albeit not impossible.

As for a “write-off”, that’s solely down to the LA’s discretion.  However, in my experience, LAs rarely write off overpayments where relevant info has not been disclosed in the first instance.

thanks Kevin..
I don’t hold out much hope but we hope to get a bank loan written off due to his mental health issues.