Terms & Conditions

[MissMoody]

I wonder if anybody could advise me of an answer or direct me to the correct part of the guidance on this one.

A customer has been claiming Incap long term rate. They have been getting full CTB as well. It comes to light that for the period they received full CTB they were working in addition to claiming incap. Neither incap or the council were aware of his working. Incap may create an overpayment of benefit but his has not been done yet.

When assessing the overpayment of ctb should i use the actual income he got from part time working and the actual rate of incap that he was receiving?

Or should i not use the incap just earnings, as incap may be recovered from the customer by the dwp as an overpayment in future as he was not entitled?

My opinion is option 1 as this is how we would normally handle simular claims involving jsa or tax credit as per o/p guidance but i have been challenged on this and cannot find the relative guidance relating to this actual example to disprove the challenger on this occasion.

Thank you everyone!

[Carol Meredith]

I would go for option 1 as well. That is the income that your claimant had at the time. He had incap ben which you knew about and earnings he failed to declare. He has been overpaid because he had additional income to that you had used in the assessment. As you say Incap may be recovered but it equally may not be, you do not know and so can only go on the facts as they are at the pint that you are calculating the overpayment.
That’s my opinion anyway.

Carol

[Carol Meredith]

I would go for option 1 as well. That is the income that your claimant had at the time. He had incap ben which you knew about and earnings he failed to declare. He has been overpaid because he had additional income to that you had used in the assessment. As you say Incap may be recovered but it equally may not be, you do not know and so can only go on the facts as they are at the pint that you are calculating the overpayment.
That’s my opinion anyway.

Carol

[Anonymous]

Can anyone provide us with any regs back up on this? One manager is insisting that we recalculate the claim without the incapacity benefit as the claimant was not entitled to it. I’d like to “discuss” the case with her but I’d like some ammo please.
( in case you are confused. I work with Miss Moody!)

[markp]

I too would include both until such time as a decision on the IB OP is made. Only then might I reconsider whether or not to include IB as income. I think that Reg 104 may assist with the issue of the fact that an OP is imminent. This permits, as I see it, the inclusion of the IB payment in the assessment of the case as presented to the authority. Once a decision is made re the IB OP recovery you could then consider removing it froim the assessment. I’d advise the claimant of their responsibility to advise that they had been notified of the decision before removing the IB from the assessment.

Do I know what I'm doing? The jury's out on that........................

[Carol Meredith]

If and when you do remove Incap Ben, remember they will no longer qualify for the disability premium or the higher earnings disregard, unless of course they qualify for it on grounds other than receiving higher rate Incap Ben.
Carol

[MissMoody]

thank you everybody for your help

[Kevin D]

This may help:

[b:64638c4c61]CH/2331/2003 (para 14)[/b:64638c4c61]

In short, even if apparently overpaid, money counts as income until repayment is sought.

The fact that IB *may* be recovered is irrelevant. The circumstances only change when repayment is proactively sought.

Regards

[Author]

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