Overpayments

What is an overpayment of Housing Benefit?

An overpayment of Housing Benefit is an amount that has been paid but to which there is no entitlement under the Housing Benefit regulations.

How do overpayments occur?

Overpayments of Housing Benefit occur for various reasons, some examples; changes in household, change in income, change of address etc.

If the Benefits Service are not informed immediately of any changes in a persons circumstances an overpayment can occur.

If an overpayment occurs, how can I pay this back?

If Housing Benefit remains in payment an overpayment will be collected by weekly instalments from ongoing entitlement. The rate of this recovery will depend on the customers income, the usual rate that will be collected is £11.10 per week, but if the overpayment has been created due to fraudulent activity this rate can increase to £18.50 per week.

If the customer has no ongoing entitlement to Housing Benefit an invoice will be issued for the overpayment. The invoice can then be paid by Credit/Debit Card over the phone, Cheque, BACS (Sort Code - 30 91 56 Account no - 00465509),  or via our online payments system. Repayment plans can also be arranged if needed, although these are dependent on a person's individual circumstances and can be paid as above or by Weekly/Monthly Direct Debit/Standing Order. You may be asked to complete an income and expenditure form below. Please also refer to the following links for some really useful information Money Advice Service (MAS) and Debt Advice Locator, the MAS is an independent service set up by the government to help people manage their money. The Debt Advice Locator aims to give access to free, confidential and impartial debt advice near where you live or work.

Income & Expenditure Form.pdf [pdf] 97KB

The overpayment of Housing Benefit may also be collected by way of ‘Blameless Tenant Recovery’. This is where overpaid benefit was paid to the landlord and that landlord is receiving ongoing payments of Housing Benefit in respect of other ‘innocent’ tenants to whom the overpayment does not relate. Any amount recovered by this method from ‘innocent’ tenants will be deemed to have been paid as rent by them to the value of the recovered sum.

What are my rights?

You have one calendar month to appeal from when you first receive notification of the overpayment.

You can appeal against the recoverability of the overpayment not who to recover it from. This decision is at the Local Authorities discretion.

In deciding who an overpayment of Housing Benefit is recoverable from the Local Authority will look at the following:

  • Who was the payee?
  • Who failed to disclose or misrepresent a fact that caused the overpayment?
  • Who could reasonably have known that an overpayment of Housing Benefit was occurring?

When overpayments cannot be recovered from Landlords

  • If it was never paid to them in the first place (unless the Landlord was the person who misrepresented or failed to disclose a fact which caused the overpayment)
  • It was paid to them but it is unreasonable to recover from them.

The authority is satisfied that the landlord has not:

  • Colluded with the claimant so as to cause the overpayment.
  • Acted or neglected to act in such a way so as to contribute to the period, or the amount, of the overpayment.

What happens if I don't repay my overpayment?

Once an invoice is issued you have 14 days to make payment in full or to contact the Collection Team to make an arrangement to repay. A reminder will be issued if no arrangement or payment is received and a further 14 days will be given to contact the authority.

Should an invoice remain unpaid after this time the authority can either pass the debt to its debt collection agency,collect via a Direct Earnings Attachment from your wages without the need for County Court action or register the debt with the County Court.

Should this debt be passed to County Court, the debt can then be recovered by other means, either, a visit from the County Court Bailiff, by placing a charging order on your home and you could even be made bankrupt.

If during this process you are required to attend County Court and fail to do so a Warrant for your arrest can be obtained which will be enforced by the Court.

More information on Her Majesty's Courts Service

Contacts:

Collection Team – 01268 882269/882225/882361

Email: Sundry Debtors

 

Overpaid Local Council Support

 

What is an overpayment of Local Council Tax Support?

 

There are three types of overpaid Local Council Tax Support (LCTS)

 

1. LCTS is awarded normally from the start of the claim to the end of the financial year, so where there are changes in the applicant’s circumstances which changes the award of LCTS or removes entitlement the LCTS will be removed from the change date, or have the award amended. This will run through to the end of the financial year and the overpaid LCTS called a reversal award will be added to the outstanding Council Tax debt for the current year and is recoverable.

 

2. If the award of LCTS is amended due to a change in circumstances where the Local Authority was aware of the change but did not action it at the correct time, or where the overpaid LCTS has been created due to a Local Authority Error this is called a reversal. In these cases, the Local Authority will determine if the overpaid LCTS is deemed to be recoverable from the Council Tax Payer or whether it should be considered for write off in full or part.

 

3. The award of LCTS will be adjusted where the Council Tax liability is amended or is stopped, the date of change will be the date the liability is amended.  In most cases where this is the reason for the LCTS adjustment there will be no overpaid LCTS as the adjustment will match the change of Council Tax liability.   

 

Where there has been a decision made by the Local Authority in relation to the award of LCTS, the authority will give details of the change, the person affected can request a reconsideration of the change and where this is undertaken and the award of LCTS or the removal of the LCTS is confirmed the person affected has right of appeal to the Valuation Tribunal.

 

Please look under benefit appeals for details of the procedure.