I am aware that a Housing Benefit overpayment can be recovered from a lump sum credit – even if it is not for the same period of the overpayment if it is a revision of our original decision, however i just need some re-assurance really about what you would do if you had uncashed cheques not for the same period.
I have a situation where we have a fraud overpayment which did start to recover from ongoing entitlement, then the claimant advised that they no longer wished to claim and so the balance has been sent to debtors. It has recently come to light that a number of cheques were not cashed by the claimant and these will significantly reduce the overpayment, however they are not for the same period as the overpayment.
My gut reaction is to repay the cheques and use the whole of this credit to offset the overpayment, but am unsure if this is really ok to do. Has anyone got any views on this at all?
Many thanks
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