Over payment of Housing Benefit

[Delly1234]

Hi
My local council have

informed me that an outstanding debt of £1,167.46 is owed by me, this dates back to 2010. They claim that over this time period they have been sending letters to me; however I have never received these letters. some weeks back I did receive a letter which I replied via email asking for further
information and to what period this related to as this was back in 2010 when I was in between jobs and had to claim HB for a few weeks while I was waiting to get a start date for my new job however they continued to pay HB, even though I had stopped my claim for Job seekers allowance. I made them an offer to pay an amount which I could afford as I am pregnant and go on maternity leave in December, so my income will change dramatically, however they would not accept this amount
and I have now received an order from the court for the recovery of the award. I have made an appointment with Citizens advice
but this appointment has come too late and won’t be until 14th Oct
and the order made by the court is for 7th October. I am so worried
about this and it has caused me some stress to receive this. I really need help
before my appointment with Citizens advice and I don’t know where to turn. Will I have to attend court? This will be very difficult as I have no time off work and also the amount of nearly £100 per month which the council says I must pay is a sum which I would not be able to afford. I offered them an amount and they would not accept.

Please can you any one help-Thanks

I'm confused. Have you been receiving hb since 2010 knowing you should have stopped it? Is it an actual court order? I'd suggest you attend and talk to the judge (?) about it. S/he may be more understanding.

7th is tomorrow . Ideally you should go or at least ring the court to ask of a delay as you have been in correspondence but how long ago were you notified of the date ? If you have made an offer to pay then a judge is likely to agree with you but it sounds as if your email has gone astray, got caught up in a backlog or not got cross referenced to your file in time if you have had no response and now a summons. You'd have been better sending a recorded letter.

oh I see you did get a reply refusing your offer - how much was it ? JSA and HB are separate claims so the onus would have been on you to cancel when you started working again. Were you aware you were receiving it while not entitled ?