Reply To: Simple O/P Classification
The possible official error is not complying with Reg 92(2): payment to be made in arrears “in so far as it is practicable to do so”. Your counter-argument would be that it is not practicable to make payments during the Christmas shutdown, so that’s easily answered.
No official error means it’s recoverable but from whom? If HB was paid to the landlord, both they and the claimant had a duty to disclose changes. If the change happened on the 19th, the payment was made on the 21st and the change was reported on the 23rd, you could say their failure to disclose the change before the 21st caused the overpayment and so it is recoverable from both of them for that reason. subsidy classification would be claimant error.
Or you could say that they were reasonably entitled to expect that the normal payment cycle gave them a window of a few days to report the change before any further payments were made, and they did report it before what would have been the normal payment date, so it’s not really anyone’s fault, just one of those unfortunate things. subsidy classification “other”, but still recoverable by default from both the claimant and the person to whom the payment was made.
i would probably vote “other”.
by the way, the above response assumes it was correct to end HB from 19/12 which is a separate issue.
