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Backdated HB entitlement due to a DOB error
Hi,
I have a customer who signed a claim form confirming her DOB was 1953 instead of 1943 back in 2003. She insists the LA completed the form and she signed it (no trace of proof of DOB being submitted).
Some years later, the LA received a notifcation from the Pension Service confirming a claim for PC and her correct date of birth.
The claim was corrected and the underpayment was paid to the customer’s rent account (council tenant). However, the decision was revised and the customer was overpaid and this reduced the underpayment to nil.
Are the LA duty bound to act on information form the Pension Service i.e DOB? If so, are there any regs to support this?
As the customer was subsequently ‘overpaid’ and underlying entitlement was not offerred I believe the customer’s actual DOB must be used for the duration of the overpayment. I will pursue this but would rather have a clear cut reg confirming a customer’s real DOB must be used.
Many thanks
Allan
Many thanks,
I’ve decided to go down the route of underlying entitlement as it seems the most simple way to get the right result for the customer. They also failed to record the overpayment so I don’t think they have an argument.
This is the same case as the one I asked about on Friday. Luckily, I have access to all of the customer’s benefit records so I could do a lot of digging and stumbled upon this.
I’ve managed to get the overpayment recovery rate reduced to £3.55 p/w until my request for underlying entitlement is heard.
I tried to thank you yestarday for your input on Friday but kept getting an error message.
Thanks again.
Allan
They prosecuted her for fraudulently claiming less than she was entitled to?!?
You couldn’t make it up
Sorry, I should have been clearer with the dates. The fraud decision was in 2007 and the customer’s DOB had been corrected at this time. I was hoping they had incorrectly prosecuted her but unfortunately they had not.
Thanks
Allan