The Housing Benefit (General) (Amendment No. 2) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2005

Amendment of regulation 101 of the Housing Benefit Regulations

4.—(1) Regulation 101 of the Housing Benefit Regulations(1) (person from whom recovery may be sought) shall be amended in accordance with paragraphs (2) to (5).

(2) After sub-paragraph (b) of paragraph (1), there shall be inserted the following sub-paragraph—

“(bb) the Executive is satisfied that the overpayment did not occur as a result of any change of dwelling occupied by the claimant as his home;”.

(3) For paragraph (2) there shall be substituted the following paragraph—

“(2) For the purposes of section 73(3)(b) of the Administration Act (overpayments of housing benefit), where recovery of an overpayment is sought by the Executive—

(a) the prescribed person from whom it is sought shall be—

(i) in a case where an overpayment arose in consequence of a misrepresentation of or a failure to disclose a material fact (in either case, whether fraudulently or otherwise) by or on behalf of the claimant or any other person to whom housing benefit has been paid, the person who misrepresented or failed to disclose that material fact instead of, if different, the person to whom the payment was made;

(ii) in a case where an overpayment arose in consequence of an official error where the claimant or a person acting on his behalf or any other person to whom the payment has been made could reasonably have been expected, at the time of receipt of the payment or of any notice relating to that payment, to realise that it was an overpayment, that person instead of, if different, the person to whom the payment was made, or

(b) where sub-paragraphs (a)(i) and (ii) do not apply, the prescribed person from whom it is sought is—

(i) the claimant.;

(ii) in a case where a recoverable overpayment is made to a claimant who has one or more partners, the claimant’s partner or any of his partners.”.

(4) After paragraph (3), there shall be inserted the following paragraph—

“(3A) For the purposes of paragraph (2)(a)(ii), “overpayment arose in consequence of an official error” shall have the same meaning as in regulation 99(3)”.

(5) In paragraph (4) for “paragraph (2)(b)” there shall be substituted “paragraph (2)(b)(ii)”.

(1)

Regulation 101 was substituted by regulation 2(3) of S.R. 2001 No.179