In a SC case, the claimant is not required to notify you about the commencement of that SC or the AIF: see Reg 75 paras (5), (6) and especuially (7):
[i:58758b3727]”A person who is on housing benefit and on state pension credit need only report to the designated office the changes specified in paragraphs (5) and (6)”.[/i:58758b3727]
This means that the claimant is excluded the general duty to report set out in para (1): it’s a closed list. From the moment you had the information, any payment subsequently issued was inescapably an official error overpayment I think, so the recovery test is the “reasonably expected to know” one. The advice given in the leaflet may well be relevant in deciding whether such cases are recoverable: if you’ve been told that you don’t have to be concerned about something, you are less likely to pay close attention to it. You’d be inclined to think that the council and DWP will sort it out between them. Only after months or years go by would you start to wonder.
