The Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2008

Amendments to the Council Tax Benefit Regulations relating to overpayments

6.—(1) The Council Tax Benefit Regulations shall be amended as follows.

(2) For regulation 85 (person from whom recovery may be sought) substitute—

“85.   Recoverable excess benefit shall be due from the claimant or the person to whom the excess benefit was allowed.”.

(3) In regulation 86 (methods of recovery)—

(a) in paragraph (1) omit “due from any person referred to in regulation 85 (person from whom recovery may be sought)”;

(b) in paragraph (2)—

(i) omit “either”; and

(ii) for “person to whom regulation 85(1) refers” substitute “claimant or the person to whom the excess benefit was allowed”; and

(c) for paragraph (3) substitute—

“(3) Where recoverable excess benefit cannot be recovered by either of the methods specified in paragraph (2), the relevant authority may request the Secretary of State to recover the outstanding excess—

(a) from the benefits prescribed in regulation 90(1); or

(b) where the claimant has one or more partners, from the benefits prescribed in regulation 90(1A), provided that the claimant and that partner were a couple both at the time the excess benefit was allowed and when the deduction is made.”.

(4) In regulation 90(1) (recovery of excess benefit from prescribed benefits)—

(a) in paragraph (1) before “For the purposes of section 76(3)(c) of the Administration Act” insert “Subject to paragraph (1B),”;

(b) after paragraph (1A) insert—

“(1B) For the purposes of section 76(3)(c) of the Administration Act, where recovery is sought from the claimant’s partner under regulation 86(3)(b), the benefits prescribed by this regulation are—

(a) income support under Part 7 of the Act;

(b) income-based jobseeker’s allowance;

(c) state pension credit; and

(d) income-related employment and support allowance.”; and

(c) for paragraph (2) substitute—

“(2) The Secretary of State shall, if requested to do so by a relevant authority under regulation 86 (methods of recovery), recover excess benefit by deduction from any of the benefits prescribed in paragraph (1) or (in the case of the claimant’s partner) any of the benefits prescribed in paragraph (1B) provided that the Secretary of State is satisfied that—

(a) recoverable excess benefit has been allowed in consequence of a misrepresentation of or a failure to disclose a material fact (in either case whether fraudulently or otherwise), by a claimant or any other person to whom council tax benefit has been allowed; and

(b) the person from whom it is sought to recover the excess benefit is receiving sufficient amounts of any of the benefits prescribed in paragraph (1) or (1B) (as the case may be) to enable deductions to be made for the recovery of the excess.”.

(1)

Regulation 90 is amended by S.I. 2005/2904, as amended by S.I. 2006/217, and S.I. 2008/1082.