My mum has been told she owes the council £3,500. Anyone know anything about council housing etc?

[saltire]

Her and my step dad applied for a rebate becasue he had given up full time work and works part time (he's 63) They were told that their rent would be £8.00 per week and their council tax would be £30 per month.

they ahve 2 letters from the relevant part of the council saying this. Anyway a couple of weeks ago they were asked to send all teh paperwork in for a review. Today they got told that they owe the council £3,500, because of an error in the calculations, they apparently weren't entitled to a rebate at all and should have been paying £54 per week rent.
My mother is worried sick about this, as is step dad. They have an appointment with some woman from the to discuss options, but mum is worried that they are
A) going to evict them
b) Make them pay a large amount every week which they can'r afford
C) Have to use up what little saving s they have and
D) that my step dad will have to go to jail.

a. they won't
b. they won't
c. they may have to repay but at an agreed rate
d. no way

Go in for the discussion, say how it was council's fault, come to sensible agreement. The council will not be 'out to get them' if it is as you say.

well if they have the letters then neither a nor d will happen (and it probably wouldn't happen even without the letters). I don't know about council housing specifically, but generally in cases like these it's in the creditor's interests to be flexible - if they evicted your mum then they wouldn't get their money back at all would they? I think your dm and dsd should come up with an amount that they could realistically pay over the £54 a week, offer that and see what happens. there should be an appeals process for the rebate thing too, but you'll have to ask the council about that.

They will arrange for them to pay back an amount they can afford maybe only five or so pounds a week. They will not be evicted and certainly not go to jail.

none of the below can happen, it's not their fault...they can offer to pay 50p a week if they cant afford to pay anymore of the debt and the council would have to accept it, because at least they are paying the debt off.i think a reasonable payment would be £5-£10 a week and they will be fine

mum has said that they can realistically afford an extra £20 a week. Of course if my arsehole brother got a decent job, instead of one night a fortnight in a pub, he could contribute.

I told her that even if he offered £1.00 a week they would have to accept it. They have been told that there is an appeals process, but "it takes time". In other words, start paying it back now.
The letter they got originally says

"based on the information you gave us, we have worked out that your new rent will be £8.00 per week.

The appeals process does take time, but if they start paying back now and are successful at appeal they will get their money back. Worth a pop if it won't stress them too much.

They can definitely appeal - they should do so straight away, and the rent office might have a benefit advisor who can help them with this. Basically if they can prove that they provided everything they were asked to, and there was no way they could reasonably understand they were being overpaid, it should be written off. It really is worth appealing and the first appeal shouldn't actually take very long to be considered. It's only if it's turned down and they have to go to the tribunals service that it will take a long time. There might be a welfare rights service they can go to for help.

Also if they do end up having to pay it back they can do so at a small amount per week but I don't think £1 would be accepted - more likely to be around £5 or £10.

Spoke to mum this morning, they are off to see someone at the council. They have taken copies of all their pension and wages - the same copies that were used to work out the £8.00 per week. The woman they are going to see has said they have a good case for appeal. Poor mum, she is really upset about this