Overpayments of Housing Benefit
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Overpayments of housing benefit are where we have paid too much money either to yourself or the landlord. The person responsible for repaying the money owed will depend on what the reason was for the change in circumstances.
Overpayments may occur due to a change in circumstances such as:
- Your income details have changed
- Someone has moved in or out of the property
- Non dependents income has changed
Overpayments of housing benefit are recoverable unless:
- They are caused by an official error; and
- The claimant or the person receiving the benefit could not be expected to have known there was an overpayment; and
- The claimant or person receiving the housing benefit did not contribute to the error.
We can recover overpayments from either the claimant (if you are still in receipt of housing benefit we may reduce the amount you are paid each week, the reduction will be notified to you by letter) or the person to whom we made the payment. However, we cannot recover housing benefit from a landlord if:
- The landlord told us in writing that they suspect there has been an overpayment
- We think the overpayment arose because the tenant fraudulently misled us, or because the tenant fraudulently failed to tell us about a change;
- We do not think the landlord contributed to the overpayment.
What if you don't agree with an overpayment?
The first thing to do when you receive your overpayment letter is to read it carefully, it will contain a paragraph which will explain what the overpayment is for and the dates you have been overpaid.
If you still disagree with the overpayment after reading the explanation you can do the following:
- Phone, write or visit any our offices.
- You can appeal against the overpayment. You must do this in writing and within one calendar month of the date of the letter.
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