Due to Hubby having to change jobs last year because of ill health we had to claim HB/CTB for the first time in years.
The first award notice was calculated incorrectly and so I appealed this and was awarded in my favour.
I faithfully attended the LA office each month to take in my husbands payslips and update them with any changes in circumstances and out of the blue in Sept 2012 I received a letter telling me that despite handing these in and each month the receptionist checking the computer to get our claim reference number, our claim had been terminated in June 2012.
They enclosed a claim form and said that we could apply to have the benefit backdated to June 2012. As by now this was September, I had to fill in the form detailing our circumstances as they were in June when they terminated the claim but also detailing each change that took place and when it had occurred on the form, so it was quite a challenge.
I eventually received a new award notice in October 2012. I was surprised at how much benefit they said we were entitled to so I telephoned the LA benefit office to query and they said that it was correct and I had no need to worry.
A few weeks later I was filling in a form to apply for help with health costs and I had to refer back to the award notice in order to fill in the details of the HB that we received. As I looked through the notices I had received, on the final award notice (for the period from beginning of Sept onwards) I noticed to my horror that they had the wrong amount of child benefit on it.
From Sept 2012 we only received CB for one child as my older daughter has left FTE. However, HB had us down as receiving CB for two children in FTE.
I immediately telephoned the LA office who claimed that I had not detailed this on my benefit claim for that I filled in during Sept. I said to them that I felt sure I had notified them of this. The woman on the phone said that it didn't really matter too much as it wouldn't affect our benefit entitlement anyway and that it was just a 'paper exercise' for them to ensure that they had correct details of our income. Panic over so I thought! She just told me to bring in some proof i.e bank statement of the amount of CB we were receiving.
The next month when I took my husbands payslip in to the LA I also gave them the proof of the child benefit we receive. The following month I still hadn't heard anything back from them after giving them this evidence and so the next time I was in the office I asked the receptionist what was happening and what I had been told about the child benefit. She then told me that I had been informed incorrectly and that as my daughter had left FTE we would lose one of the applicable amounts for caring for a young person. This meant that we had been overpaid benefit since September. She then telephoned someone else to check that she was informing me correctly and they also said that our benefit would be affected. I was then told that they would look at our form the following week to sort the matter out.
I heard nothing until yesterday when I received a new award notice informing me that we have been overpaid £1500 in HB/CTB since September.
There are some things that I don't understand....
1. They are saying that I told them about my child benefit reducing due to my daughter leaving fulltime education on 19/11/2012. However I did tell them on 17/9/2012 when I originally filled in the claim form for the backdated claim.
On that basis, I don't understand why they are trying to recover the overpayment from me right up to 07/01/2012. Surely as soon as they were informed of by me of this changed any overpayment is their issue rather than chasing me for it?
2. I was told on two occasions that the benefit calculation that I had received was correct - once on the day that I received the award notice when I phoned the benefit office and when I then found out that they had applied the incorrect amount of child benefit to our claim when I again phoned the benefit office.
I am the one who has brought the matter to their attention, but could they turn around and say that even though I was told twice that the calculation was correct and our benefit wouldn't be affected, I should have noticed the error sooner and therefore still hold me accountable for the overpayment.
I would like to add that each award notice I have received I have ended up having to appeal and being awarded in my favour, and this is yet another example of the complete incompetence of our benefit department at the LA.
One other thing, my husband received a small bonus in December - this was a one off bonus and was applied just for the month of December. However on looking at the award notice the payslip for December has been applied over a 5 week period. This means that they have said hubby was paid £431 each week for 5 weeks, when in fact it was £431 each week for 4 weeks. I have been told that this is because the benefit is worked out from the Monday and because there were 5 Mondays in December they say that his income was at that amount for 5 weeks. I argued that this was grossly unfair as the w/c 7/01/13 hubby earned his usual weekly amount which was far less than this and this means that we have again lost out on benefit and this seems to be very unfair. Is there something that I am missing on this or is the LA actually correct in working out that he has earning money that he hasn't?
The first award notice was calculated incorrectly and so I appealed this and was awarded in my favour.
I faithfully attended the LA office each month to take in my husbands payslips and update them with any changes in circumstances and out of the blue in Sept 2012 I received a letter telling me that despite handing these in and each month the receptionist checking the computer to get our claim reference number, our claim had been terminated in June 2012.
They enclosed a claim form and said that we could apply to have the benefit backdated to June 2012. As by now this was September, I had to fill in the form detailing our circumstances as they were in June when they terminated the claim but also detailing each change that took place and when it had occurred on the form, so it was quite a challenge.
I eventually received a new award notice in October 2012. I was surprised at how much benefit they said we were entitled to so I telephoned the LA benefit office to query and they said that it was correct and I had no need to worry.
A few weeks later I was filling in a form to apply for help with health costs and I had to refer back to the award notice in order to fill in the details of the HB that we received. As I looked through the notices I had received, on the final award notice (for the period from beginning of Sept onwards) I noticed to my horror that they had the wrong amount of child benefit on it.
From Sept 2012 we only received CB for one child as my older daughter has left FTE. However, HB had us down as receiving CB for two children in FTE.
I immediately telephoned the LA office who claimed that I had not detailed this on my benefit claim for that I filled in during Sept. I said to them that I felt sure I had notified them of this. The woman on the phone said that it didn't really matter too much as it wouldn't affect our benefit entitlement anyway and that it was just a 'paper exercise' for them to ensure that they had correct details of our income. Panic over so I thought! She just told me to bring in some proof i.e bank statement of the amount of CB we were receiving.
The next month when I took my husbands payslip in to the LA I also gave them the proof of the child benefit we receive. The following month I still hadn't heard anything back from them after giving them this evidence and so the next time I was in the office I asked the receptionist what was happening and what I had been told about the child benefit. She then told me that I had been informed incorrectly and that as my daughter had left FTE we would lose one of the applicable amounts for caring for a young person. This meant that we had been overpaid benefit since September. She then telephoned someone else to check that she was informing me correctly and they also said that our benefit would be affected. I was then told that they would look at our form the following week to sort the matter out.
I heard nothing until yesterday when I received a new award notice informing me that we have been overpaid £1500 in HB/CTB since September.
There are some things that I don't understand....
1. They are saying that I told them about my child benefit reducing due to my daughter leaving fulltime education on 19/11/2012. However I did tell them on 17/9/2012 when I originally filled in the claim form for the backdated claim.
On that basis, I don't understand why they are trying to recover the overpayment from me right up to 07/01/2012. Surely as soon as they were informed of by me of this changed any overpayment is their issue rather than chasing me for it?
2. I was told on two occasions that the benefit calculation that I had received was correct - once on the day that I received the award notice when I phoned the benefit office and when I then found out that they had applied the incorrect amount of child benefit to our claim when I again phoned the benefit office.
I am the one who has brought the matter to their attention, but could they turn around and say that even though I was told twice that the calculation was correct and our benefit wouldn't be affected, I should have noticed the error sooner and therefore still hold me accountable for the overpayment.
I would like to add that each award notice I have received I have ended up having to appeal and being awarded in my favour, and this is yet another example of the complete incompetence of our benefit department at the LA.
One other thing, my husband received a small bonus in December - this was a one off bonus and was applied just for the month of December. However on looking at the award notice the payslip for December has been applied over a 5 week period. This means that they have said hubby was paid £431 each week for 5 weeks, when in fact it was £431 each week for 4 weeks. I have been told that this is because the benefit is worked out from the Monday and because there were 5 Mondays in December they say that his income was at that amount for 5 weeks. I argued that this was grossly unfair as the w/c 7/01/13 hubby earned his usual weekly amount which was far less than this and this means that we have again lost out on benefit and this seems to be very unfair. Is there something that I am missing on this or is the LA actually correct in working out that he has earning money that he hasn't?