Terms & Conditions

[JamesPickering]

At present, when we create non-recoverable overpayments because of a mistake etc by our LA we currently record:

A breakdown of the overpayment for all the periods of the overpayment with a “has had” “Should have had”. This can take ages if the overpayment covers a long period of time or multiple awards of Benefit.

Dates, names of assessors, reason why op occurred, date we received info, date we processed info.

All of this is then logged onto a spreadsheet.

I personally feel this is a long excessive process.

Can anyone see that we need any information except:
1. Amount of OP
2. Period OP covers
3. Reason for OP

I am being told it we need to keep all this info because of “Audit purposes” but no-one can elaborate on why we need all this info.

In my opinion the system hold all the details (we are a Northgate site).

Any views/opinions on our shocking process much appreciated so I can throw it at the powers that be.

Thanks,

James

p.s. I would also like to point out that we hardly ever make LA errors – 😆 😳 😯

[markp]

What, hardly ever!!

Do you notify of the OP even if not recovering it. If you do you have to provide the details of how the OP was calculated. My personal belief if that you should notify the claimant of it.

We too are an SX3 site and I’ve never had to enter the details you list. We provide to the Head of Benefits (if over £200.00) the fact that there is a non – recoverable OP, the period and amount of it. I assume that she then collates info. The system will identify the who and when (could be used for training purposes).

If the OP is under £200.00, officers above the grade of assessor/benefit officer (whatever they may be called wherever) can authorise the write off and I certainly don’t have to fill in spreadsheets etc. OP’s in this category that are less than £100.00 can be written off by the assessor but only on a team leader’s (or equivalent) signature. An SX3 report identifies all LA error OP’s written off so there’s your audit trail.

Good luck with your attempts to change things – I know how frustrating it can be!

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

[Anonymous]

There is also a report in Northgate RBE685 – Overpayments with Recovery set to N which we use to identify non-recoverable overpayments which need to be approved for write-off.

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