CCM15800 - Undisclosed Partners: Recovery of Overpayments from 18 January 2010 - Failure to notify a change in a previous year and there is a penalty

Where you learn that the customer failed to notify that a partner had joined or left their household in a previous year which has already been finalised and the behaviour that led to the error if failure to take reasonable care, see CCM10730 or serious error, see CCM10740 you will be considering charging a penalty. However, you can still consider remitting part of the overpayment where

  • A new correct claim has now been made and the award made and
  • The start date for the original award is prior to the date for which the new claim is backdated

Although the customer not only failed to tell us about the change at the time and then went on to incorrectly finalise their award we still want to encourage customers to put their affairs on a correct footing.

You will not be able to calculate the proposed penalty until you have calculated any notional entitlement so you need to follow the steps below.

Step 1

  • Advise the customer of the date from which the award will be terminated and that any tax credits paid since that date will be overpaid
  • Explain that they should now make a new claim in the correct capacity and advise them that if they do so you might be able to waive part of the overpayment
  • Issue the closure letter, amend the award and BF your case for 30 days

Step 2

During the BF period you should check to see if the new claim has been made and processed.

  • If the new claim is not made within this period you can continue to work your case without any notional entitlement following the guidance in Chapters 4 or 16 of this manual. If, before you have obtained a letter of offer to cover the overpayment and penalty the customer then gets in touch to say they have now got their new award you will need to follow from step 3 below
  • If the new claim is held and an award has been made see step 3

Step 3

  • Use the SEES calculator to calculate the notional entitlement, see CCM15720
  • Calculate the proposed penalty based on the net over-claim. For example, if the over-claim was £5,600 but the notional entitlement is £1,100 the penalty will be based on a net over-claim of £4,500
  • (This content has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000)

Step 4

  • Complete the 94NTC to show the net amount of any overpayment to be recovered and the proposed penalty
  • You will need to wait until the full 30 day BF period has expired to allow the full appeal period and then continue to work the case from the ‘settlement proposals’ stage as shown in Chapters 4 or 16 of this manual

(This content has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000)

  • (This content has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000)
  • (This content has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000) CCM16590(This content has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000)
  • (This content has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000)

There are examples of a notional entitlement calculation at CCM15805