housing benefit problem

[suzzi]

i moved in with my oh in april and emailed the council to tell them, i still have the email, they still paid my housing benefit so i wrote to them and told them to stop. thought all would be ok.

today i got a visit from the council asking about my housing i told her about the email which she said she hadnt recived but i have an automated reply from them, and she said the letter said id put down 1/8/11 to leave when i told her it was 1/5/11 which my email backs up

i had to sign a report she wrote and she gave me a letter and i asked what happens now as id had a couple of payments from them, she said they would review it and ask me to repay it, but now im worried ill have to go to court or get prosecuted.

im worrying so much.

 

[nik106]

Try not to worry! You haven't tried to hide anything, you have an email, with an auto-reply from them stating it had been received so you can prove that you weren't trying to hide anything. It is their mistake, and you will probably have to pay it back, but they're highly unlikely to prosecute. I'm pretty sure that's usually for people who are deliberately deceiving them, which you aren't as you did tell them

 

[suzzi]

thanks my sister thinks that too but they are not the nicest people to deal with and make you feel guilty x

 

[nik106]

They're probably like that to try and prevent people from being naughty! Except mostly all it'll do is intimidate the honest people!

 

[Emmamb]

Theyl just ask for u to pay it back xxx