Overpayments

An overpayment of Housing and Council Tax Benefit is amount of benefit which we have paid to you, to which you are not entitled to. This section will explain:

  • Why an overpayment occurs;
  • How we will inform you about any overpayment that has occurred;
  • Whether we can ask for the money to be repaid;
  • How we will recover an overpayment;
  • How you can reduce the amount of the overpayment;
  • What happens when your landlord is overpaid benefit;
  • What your rights are.

Why an overpayment occurs

An overpayment of Housing and Council Tax Benefit can occur for a variety of reasons:

  • You may have provided the Council with incorrect information;
  • You may not have told the Council about something we needed to know;
  • You may have failed to promptly tell us about something we needed to know;
  • We may have made an error in deciding your claim;
  • We may have failed to act upon your information promptly.

Most commonly an overpayment of Housing and Council Tax Benefit will occur following a change in your circumstances. If this change in circumstances reduces your entitlement to benefit for a period which the Council have already paid benefit on, an overpayment will occur.

It is therefore vitally important to inform the Council of any changes in your circumstances as soon as you are aware of them, even if you are unable to provide documentary evidence of your new circumstances. If you tell the Council promptly we will be able to take action to reduce the risk of an overpayment occurring.

How we will inform you about any overpayment that has occurred

When an overpayment occurs the Council are legally obliged to write to you explaining:

  • Why the overpayment has occurred;
  • How much you have been overpaid;
  • How we have calculated your overpayment;
  • The period over which the overpayment accrued;
  • Whether we are going to recover the overpayment;
  • How we will recover the overpayment;
  • And what your rights are.

Whether we can ask for the money to be repaid

In most cases the Council will seek to recover any benefit overpaid. Dependant upon the circumstances of the case the Council may seek to recover the overpayment from you or your landlord. We will usually seek to recover an overpayment from your landlord when your landlord was paid your Housing Benefit.

If the reason for the overpayment occurring was as a result of an error made by the Council, we will make a decision about the recoverability of the overpayment based upon the circumstances of each case. If we decide that you or your landlord could reasonably have been expected to know that we had made an error and you failed to act to resolve this error, we may decide to recover the overpayment. If we decide that you couldn’t have reasonably known that an error had occurred we may not seek to recover the overpayment.

How we will recover an overpayment

There are a number of overpayment recovery methods used by the Council, these include:

  • Taking instalments from your on-going Housing Benefit payments;
  • Using the Housing Benefit we owe you to offset some or all of the overpayment;
  • Sending you bill for the overpayment if you are no longer entitled to Housing Benefit;
  • Asking the Department of Works and Pensions to deduct money from your other benefits;
  • Or recovering the money from your landlord.

If you have been overpaid Council Tax Benefit the overpaid amount will be added to your Council Tax account and you will be sent a revised Council Tax bill.

  • Taking instalments from your on-going Housing Benefit payments.

The Government set standard weekly rates for recovering Housing Benefit overpayments from a persons on-going benefit entitlement. From April 2009 the maximum amount we can recover per week is:

  1. £12.80 per week if the overpayment was a result of fraudulent action
  2. £9.75 per week for all other overpayments

The Council are also able to take an additional 50% of the following income disregards to use to repay an overpayment:

  1. Earnings Disregard
  2. Charitable or Voluntary income
  3. War Disability Pension / War Widows Pension

If the amount that we are recovering per week is causing you financial difficulties please contact the Council as we might be able to reduce the recovery rate per week. Please note this will mean that it will take longer to repay the overpayment.

The minimum amount the Council can recover per week is 50 pence.

How you can reduce the amount of the overpayment

If you provide further information and evidence regarding your circumstances during the period in which you incurred your overpayment, within one month of being notified of the overpayment, we may be able to reduce the amount of the overpayment by recalculating your entitlement to benefit during that period.

What happens when your landlord is overpaid?

If we pay your Housing Benefit direct to your landlord we will usually seek to recover any overpayment from them. If you continue to be entitled to benefit we will recover the overpayment by deducting the standard overpayment recovery rate per week from your on-going payments. If you are no longer entitled to benefit we will invoice your landlord for the overpaid amount.

Please note that if your landlord treats the money we recover from him in respect of your benefit overpayment as rent arrears, and increases your rent to take account of your rent arrears, we may not be able to cover the increased rent charge by Housing Benefit.

What your rights are

When we write to you to notify you that an overpayment has occurred we will also inform you of your rights, this will include:

  • The right to request a statement of reasons about the decision that caused the overpayment, and the decision regarding the recoverability of the overpayment;
  • The right to ask for the decision to be reconsidered. This must be received within one calendar month of the date on the decision letter notifying you of the overpayment. In this letter you must explain why you do not agree with our decision and give reasons to support your request;
  • The right to appeal the decision to an independent appeals tribunal. Your appeal letter must be received within one calendar month of the date on the decision letter and must explain why you are unhappy with our decision and the reasons why you feel the decision is wrong.

The Council also have a dedicated appeals pro-forma which you can use to make your appeal. This is located in our Claim Forms and Pro-forma section. Please note a request for a statement of reasons, request for reconsideration, or an appeal must be made in writing and signed by the person(s) claiming benefit.

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