Housing Benefit Adjudication & HB Overpayments
Housing Benefit Adjudication & Housing Benefit Overpayments
For policy, appeals and training officers, specialist decision makers and anyone with a keen interest in the adjudication rules in HB, UC and other benefits.
(It is assumed delegates have some prior knowledge of benefits in general.)
Next Workshop:
Thursday, 18th June, 2026.
Workshop Fee: £280 (No VAT)
Book 3 places and receive a 4th place FREE.
Also available for In-House Bookings for individual organisations, either On-Site or Online.
Housing Benefit Adjudication & Housing Benefit Overpayments
Revision and Supersession / Ensuring that overpayment decisions are correctly made.
The completion of the UC roll-out means that decision-making about working age HB claims will increasingly be confined to cases where retrospective adjustments lead to overpayments. We have therefore put together this programme which is intended to provide delegates with knowledge of the HB adjudication system for two purposes:
- Maintaining the remaining working age caseload of temporary and supported accommodation, as well as pensioners in general needs accommodation – this means staff still need to know about the grounds for making superseding decisions from time to time, the effective date of the decision and when there is/is not a time limit.
- Revising past decisions, especially creating overpayments when (for example) undisclosed earnings or capital come to light. Even if there is a strong case on the substantive facts, it is important to ensure that the decision making is carried out correctly so that no loopholes are left for a skilled representative to exploit in a Tribunal appeal. Delegates will learn how to get their “ducks in a row” when making overpayment decisions, and when defending such decisions in front of a Tribunal.
The Workshop begins with the adjudication framework that governs all of the above matters. We learn about the difference between “revising” a decision and making a “superseding decision”. Do you have grounds to revise or supersede, and if so which should it be? When is there a time limit for an advantageous adjustment? And what is the correct effective date of a superseding decision - they don’t all run from the following Monday!
We then move on to focus on overpayments. There are frequent mistakes that Councils make and which can result in the Council losing the chance to recover an overpayment that ought to have been recoverable. Issues covered include:
- Demonstrating that one or more awarding decisions has/have been properly revised or superseded: what was the ground relied on? Have all the people affected by the decision been properly notified?
- From whom is the overpayment recoverable: the claimant, a third party payee, or both? Does the decision notice include this crucial information?
- Has the overpayment been correctly calculated? Here we will cover underlying entitlement, including circumstances in which underlying entitlement for the claimant’s partnercan be taken into account; the special rules for overpayments arising from a change of address; and the correct way to apply the diminishing capital calculation – a quick rule-of-thumb test to establish whether diminishing capital will make a difference; and the procedure to follow when applying diminishing capital.
- We will also look at the subsidy implications of overpayments, including correct classification, previous year overpayments, and the definitive correct identification of a “technical” overpayment (these continue to be a regular topic in our postbag).
Presented by Peter Barker, a hugely experienced trainer, appeals presenter and submission writer. He started as a local authority appeals officer in the 1980s, and for many years he has represented local authorities in England, Wales and Scotland at both First-Tier and Upper Tribunal level. Tribunal Judges frequently comment on the high quality of Peter’s submissions. He combines a wealth of first-hand experience with expert knowledge of adjudication legislation and has a real enthusiasm for the topic.
Topics covered:
The Basics
· Key terminology:
o Decision;
o Revision;
o Superseding decision.
Revising A Decision
· Establishing grounds for revision;
o “Any time” revision on limited grounds;
o “Any grounds” revision within limited time.
· When the time limit can be extended.
Superseding Decisions
· Available grounds;
· Time limits;
· Tribunal decisions.
Overpayments
· Changing a series of multiple decisions
· From whom recoverable
· Calculating the amount correctly:
o Underlying entitlement
o Diminishing capital
· Subsidy classification.
Contact us for In-House Online booking information for this topic.
In-House Workshop Required?
We are always pleased to arrange most of our Workshops, such as this one, for staff from an individual organisation.