Hi

This was an unusual appeal, involving 16 tenants and demands for £235,000 in alleged overpayments. Allegedly, because there never was any overpayment in the first place nor should my clients and their tenants have been put through 3 years of unnecessary worry, anxiety, and cost. DWP subsequently accepted it had made a serious mistake, after the Council was embarrassingly forced to concede its original stance in December 2023, fully 30 months after the first appeals were lodged. By then, the affected tenants had accrued more than £200K in rent arrears.

The two principal actors in the appeal were DWP, as Respondent (Decision Maker), and my London-based HA client as the appellant. A London Borough Council also played a significant part, as it persuaded DWP, that several of the HAs tenants were residing in “Temporary Accommodation” (TA) and had therefore no entitlement to, the “housing costs element” (HCE) of Universal Credit even though each of the tenants had secured their accommodation and had never sought assistance under homeless legislation.

DWP accepted this misleading advice, without making inquiries, and around July 2021 stopped paying the HCE to the tenants. It also revised retrospectively its earlier awards, causing the large overpayments, and determined the HA, as payee, should be pursued for recovery. This meant, that until the tenants had secured an outcome to the appeal no “housing costs” could be paid, placing the tenants in jeopardy of repossession action. Thankfully, the Association’s management decided to suppress follow-up, pending an outcome to the appeal, as long as the tenants cooperated with the process.

From the outset, we agreed with DWP and the Tribunal Judge to treat 4 of the appeals as “test cases”. Having done so, DWP tried to do a Pontius Pilate by placing the onus on the Council to justify the question of “temporary accommodation” even though it was the administering authority, Decision Maker responsible for Universal Credit.

After many delays, caused by either the Council or DWP, tribunal proceedings finally commenced in May 2023, nearly two years late. Neither DWP nor the LB formally responded to my written submission, despite an order to do so by a District Judge. The only question before the Tribunal was – should the tenancies, in question, have been treated as Temporary Accommodation?

The Council under pressure from the Judge, finally admitted – “We no longer believe the accommodation is temporary accommodation” ………. this is a requirement, which at the time, we did not check each claim”.

DWP subsequently revised its flawed decision, restoring the original awards, and lapsing the appeals in favour of the tenants. It has since been paying my clients arrears of rent due, thus safeguarding the affected tenancies.

In earlier members’ bulletins, I have highlighted the threats caused by Overpayments of Universal Credit and the chaos created by DWP’s “Enhanced Review Team” which by March 2025 will be 6,000 strong. The bulk of these staff are agents, employed by DWP “partners” who will be charged with “reviewing” 8 million existing awards, over 2 years. Currently, DWP is creating around £6 Billion in overpayments per year. This is likely to rise when this team gets into full swing with many innocent tenants and landlords caught in the crossfire.

Your staff needs to be alert to the threat. That’s why I have started to offer courses (half-day) either face-to-face or via Zoom. For details of the course content examine our next course which will be delivered in Edinburgh on 3rd December 2024.

Anyone interested in attending or organising an in-house session, contact linzi@ucadvice.co.uk

Regards

Bill Irvine

UC Advice & Advocacy Ltd

Telephone 01698 424301 or 07733 080 389