The amount of benefit you receive to help you pay your rent and/or council tax depends on the information you provide when you make your claim. If your circumstances change, then so may your entitlement to housing and/or council tax benefit.
If your personal circumstances do change, and you do not tell us straight away, we may pay you too much benefit. This is called an overpayment.
Some examples of changes you must tell us about are:
- a change of address
- children who leave school/start working
- adults moving in/out of your home
- marriages, separations and divorce
- a change in income
If you fail to notify us about a change in your personal circumstances and are subsequently overpaid housing and/or Council Tax benefit, you will be required to repay the council the overpayment in full.
Let us know as soon as possible of any changes in your circumstances, to avoid a potential overpayment of benefits.
All overpayments are recoverable
The
only exception is if an official error occurs and is combined with a situation where the claimant or person to whom the payment
was made (including landlord/agents) could not have known at the time of payment that there was no entitlement to that rate
of benefit.
Official errors can include mistakes made by the ourselves, Job Centre Plus, or The Pension Service.
Who has to pay back the overpayment
We can recover the overpayment from the person who made the claim or their partner.
We may also recover the overpayment from the person who received the payments (landlord or agent), or from anyone who caused the overpayment.
How to repay an overpayment
There are a number of ways in which you can clear your overpayment:
- Pay back your benefit overpayment online.
- If you are still entitled to benefit we can reduce your weekly benefit by an agreed amount.
- If you have just started work, you may be able to get up to four weeks additional benefit. See more about Extended Payments.
- If you are no longer entitled to benefit, you can repay the overpayment in agreed instalments.
- You may be able to reduce or off-set the overpayment if you have any benefit due or uncashed benefit cheques (arrears due).
- If you are a council tenant and are in credit with your rent account, you can ask that some or all of your overpayment be sent to your rent account
- We can do a calculation to see if there would be a reduction in the original overpayment (underlying entitlement). You must provide proof of your income, capital and full household details.
What if I don't or can't pay
Housing Benefit overpayments may be treated as a civil debt for which we can sue in the county court or high court. If a court order is made for the repayment, your credit rating may be affected until the debt is cleared. If no payment is made, the county court bailiff can be empowered to recover the debt, which may include the removal and sale of personal articles. We are committed to recovering outstanding debts, but not at levels that would cause an individual hardship. Please contact us for help and advice on any aspect of your overpayment.