Afternoon all,
Well, my collegue has a quandry and it’s making my head hurt. An HB claim is made and HB awarded. During the course of a quality check, an undeclared bank account is uncovered. Entitlement is suspended and evidence of this account is requested. The following week, the clt writes in stating that he no longer wishes to claim. The suspension was then lifted and benefit was ceased, from the Monday following the written notification. This means a further week’s HB has gone out for the period between suspension and the Monday following the written notification.
What to do? Alright, there is no legal mechanism for “withdrawing a claim” once it has been decided; I do recall some discussion in this forum a while back about adverse inference being made. (Was his wish to stop claiming anything to do with us wanting evidence of this account? Perish the though!)
The problem is, when should entitlement end? From the Monday following the written notification? From the date of suspension? (But benefit hasn’t been terminated under reg 14 of the decisions and appeals regs, yet…) From the effective date of the claim? (Entitlement was assessed in ignorance of a material fact, but there is no evidence that entitlement would have been affected…)
Any ideas?
Cheers,
Darren
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