Benefit overpayments
What is an overpayment?
An overpayment is when we pay you or your landlord an amount of Housing Benefit or Council Tax Benefit that you were not entitled to receive.
Why do overpayments happen?
Overpayments usually happen because customers do not tell us about a change in circumstances which affect the 
benefit they are entitled to. Occasionally an overpayment is created because we have made a mistake when calculating your benefit.
It is important that you tell us as soon as your circumstances change.
Overpayments can happen if:
- You forget to tell us that your income has increased
- Somebody moves into or out of your home
- You move out of your home and do not tell us
- You start work or change jobs
- The circumstances of other adults living with you change.
- A dependant over 18 stops receiving Child Benefit
Please be aware the list above only gives examples of situations that could cause overpayments and you should always tell us about anything that happens that might affect your benefit entitlement.
You must tell us about any changes and not rely on anyone else to do it for you. Even if you have told the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) about your change in circumstance, you must still let us know yourself and not leave it to the DWP to tell us.
Every time we adjust your benefit you will receive a letter which states the information we have used to assess your claim. It is important you read this letter, as you are responsible for making sure that the information we have used is correct.
What happens if I am overpaid?
If you have been overpaid we will send you a letter giving you full details of the overpayment. This tells you how the overpayment happened, the amount you were overpaid, and the period of the overpayment. It also tells you how we will recover the overpayment and what to do if you disagree with it.
You will also receive an invoice which gives you your invoice number, and tells you how to pay the overpayment.
What overpayments can we recover?
We can recover all overpayments, unless they are caused by an "official error" and you could not reasonably have known you were being overpaid when you were being paid or told about your benefit. An official error is a mistake we or another government agency such as the DWP or Job Centre make.
Who is an overpayment recoverable from?
Each case is different but when working out who the overpayment should be recoverable from we will look at:
- What caused the overpayment
- Who received notification of the award
- Who received payment
- Who could have known the benefit was wrong
As a general guide:
- If either the claimant or the person who was paid caused the overpayment, we will recover the overpayment from that person.
- If the overpayment was due to official error (our mistake), we can recover from either the claimant or payee providing they could reasonably have known they were being overpaid.
- If the overpayment is nobodys fault we can recover the overpayment from either the claimant or the person who received the benefit.
If we make a mistake and it is not reasonable for you or your landlord to have known that the benefit was wrong, we should not recover the overpayment.
What if I don't understand the reason for the overpayment?
If you do not understand the overpayment please contact us for advice. You can speak to a benefit officer or get an appointment with an overpayment officer.
You can also ask for a formal statement of reasons which explains in detail the reason for the assessment and any resulting overpayment. However, you must do this within one month of receiving our decision letter. Once you have received a statement of reasons you have a further 14 days to make an appeal.
What is Underlying Entitlement?
Underlying entitlement can help to reduce an overpayment of Housing Benefit or Council Tax Benefit. 
Any overpayment should be reduced by any benefit which you would have been entitled to had all your circumstances been known at the time of the overpayment.
For example if your Job Seekers Allowance stopped because you started work and you failed to provide proof of your new income, you could be overpaid. If at a later date, you provide payslips which show that based on your income, you could have qualified for some Housing Benefit, we could use underlying entitlement to reduce the overpayment by the amount of benefit which you were entitled to . This will reduce the amount of the debt owed.
What happens if I disagree with the overpayment?
You have a month from the date we first told you about the overpayment to ask us to look at the decision again (known as a revision) or to make an appeal to the appeal tribunal.
If we look at the decision again and you are still unhappy with our decision, you have a further month from when we notified you of our review decision, to ask for an appeal.
Page updated: 20 Oct 2011
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