Can anyone advise, Direct debit issues?

[LegoAcupuncture]

MIl has been told today she is £50ish in rent arrears. She is in sheltered accomodation, received HB but the excess (for services not covered by HB) she pays monthly by DD.

Dh called them today to see why she is in arrears and it is ebcause the rent changed in April. Her direct debit did not change. They have changed the direct debit now to include the correct rent amount and the arrears spread over the rest of the year.

Can anyone please let me know if she has to pay arrears, as I am under the impression she is covered by the DD guarantee and that it is not her fault.

She only received a letter in march to say increase was happening, but nothing about her Dd changing or her having to change her DD.

TIA

The DD Guarantee means that if a payment that she does not actually owe is taken in error, they have to refund it.

The DD regulations require the organisation to notify the payer in writing at least 10 working days before any change is made.

There is nothing in the DD regulations or guarantee to stop them collecting a legitimately owed debt.

You certainly can't use the DD Guarantee to force them to write off the arrears. Given than the arrears came about due to an error on their part, it would be reasonable to ask them to write off the difference as a good-will gesture. However, they are relatively unlikely to do this as it is quite likely that the same has happened to all their tennants who pay by DD and if they write it off for her they have to write it off for everyone.

If she is on a small fixed income and the additional amount they want to add in order to pay off the arrears will be a struggle to afford, you could perhaps ask them to spread the arrears over a longer period.

Ok, thank you. That makes perfect sense.

Embarrassingly, I used to work in a bank

Given that this happened due to them forgetting to change the DD amount, do make sure that the DD goes back down again after the arrears has been paid off - you don't want to find a couple of years from now that she is still paying an elevated rate to pay off arrears that have long since been cleared if they forget again!