Recovery of Overpaid housing Benefit

I am looking to help a tenant appeal the councils decision to recover overpaid housing benefit which was created due to an official error which she could not have reasonably been expected to have realised. Has anyone ever used the doctrine of Estoppel when making such an appeal.

What is your estoppel argument?

That she acted in good faith and received the benefit with honest befief she was entitled to it , she doesn’t have the money to repay and would be left in financial hardship if they recovered from on going benefit.

Very crudely, estoppel is a private law remedy where A relies on a statement or offer from B which involves a change of position by A.  B then withdraws or amends his offer or statement resulting in A suffering a detriment.  Estoppel can be used in social security law.  I once had a commissioner in a case who estopped the DWP from saying a decision was other than it said on its face.  You need to speak to a solicitor.

If the overpayment is official error, the claimant didn’t contribute to the error (which is in itself the definition of official error), and the claimant couldn’t have reasonably known they were being overpaid, there’s no need to go down the estoppel route, it will only make things more complicated.

Also, are you sure it’s Official Error & not LA Error. That makes a big difference in the LA/Recoverability terms - official error is a DWP error, LA error is more likely & more common.  If I can help (I’m local, see), give me a shout - email address is my user name (with a full stop between first & last names) @barnardos.org.uk