Housing and Council Tax Benefit

Housing and Council Tax Benefit - Overpayments

Benefit overpayments are Housing Benefit payments that have been paid out to people who are not entitled to them. The most common cause for this is people failing to tell us about changes in their circumstances.

If we find that you have received an overpayment, we will write to you and give you details of the reason for the overpayment, when it occurred, the amount to be recovered and the method of recovery.

You will also be advised of what you can do if you want someone to explain the decision to you, or if you disagree with it.

How does the Council recover overpayments?

There are two methods we can use to recover overpayments:

Reducing weekly benefit payments

This method can be used if you still have an entitlement to Housing Benefit.

The overpayment is recovered by reducing the weekly benefit, and offsetting the overpayment by the amount that has been deducted from the benefit entitlement.

This will happen every week until the overpayment has been cleared.

Setting up a debtor account

The other method of recovery involves setting up a debtor account and sending you an invoice that you will be responsible for paying.

Payments can be made in full, or by weekly or monthly installments. There are a number of payment methods that you can use for this.

This can be arranged by either contacting us using the details on the right, or by completing our Benefit Overpayment form (available on the right), which would be subject to acceptance.

If you make no contact or offer of repayment, it is the Council's policy to then seek recovery through the County Court.

This will result in further costs being incurred, and these will be added to the already outstanding debt. This action will also result in a County Court Judgement.

You can contact Benefit Recovery using the details provided on the right.