CCM14268 - Closing the Enquiry: Penalty cases: Amending the award: award not continuing for reason other than compliance enquiry.

In certain circumstances, the award will have already ceased for reasons other than the enquiry (for example household breakdown). It is possible there may be an existing overpayment on the system which is in direct recovery as a result of a previous decision. In addition, the overpayment may have been partly recovered by cross year recovery and the balance on the later year could now also be in direct recovery as a result of the award ceasing.

In these circumstances, check household notes to establish if DMB have started recovery action for the amount in direct recovery, not doing this may lead to double recovery.

Once you have issued the letter at CCM14260 begin the process of amending the award. This must be carried out in 3 stages

Stage 1 - Take a screen shot for each year covered by the enquiry (including the CY if there is an amendment for that year) before the amendment is made. The screen shots should be saved in casebook

The screen shots for enquiry years (or any years involving a discovery) will show the position at finalisation before the amendment is made. The screen shots for CY will show the position at the point where the award ceased.

Stage 2 - Revise the awards for all relevant years. Where adjustments are needed for more that one year start with the earliest year. Always adjust an earlier year before a later one.

Stage 3 - When the amendments have been processed on system, take further screen shots for each year to show the revised position. If the system has not been updated to show the revisions continue to monitor this on a daily basis until they have been implemented

The screens shots should now show a figure of overpaid credits for the enquiry years including any amounts already overpaid. The position for CY depends on the nature of the adjustments made. Having taken the screen shots you must save them in Casebook before calculating the amount of the overpayment. to be included in your contract settlement. Then use Make remission to remit the correct amount.

Once the revised awards have been issued you should BF your papers for 30 days to allow for any appeal to reach you. Your next action will depend on the following:-

• if there is any appeal - see CCM14270