Overpayments

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If you fail to tell us about a change in your circumstances, we may end up paying you too much housing benefit or council tax benefit.

This could happen because your new circumstances might entitle you to less benefit, but if we didn’t know this we would continue paying you based on the details you gave us when you first applied.

If this happens, you may be asked to repay the extra money in full.

Here are answers to the following questions:

• What changes does the council need to know about?
• What happens if we find we’ve overpaid you?
• Will you make me repay the money?
• How will I make my repayments?
• What if I disagree with your decision?

What changes does the council need to know about?

These are some examples of the changes you must tell us about:

• change of address
• children who leave school or start working
• adults who move in or out of your home
• marriage, separation or divorce
• change in income

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What happens if we find we’ve overpaid you?

If we have paid you too much housing benefit, council tax benefit or second adult rebate we will write and tell you. The letter will tell you:

• who and when the overpayment relates to
• why the overpayment was made
• how much was overpaid
• how we worked out the overpayment
• whether you must pay it back
• how you can appeal

If we have been paying your housing benefit directly to your landlord, we may ask the landlord to repay it instead of you. If this happens we will write to both of you.

If we have overpaid your council tax benefit, we will recalculate your bill and send it to you. You will usually have to pay more.

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Will you make me repay the money?

We will look carefully at how and why the overpayment happened before deciding whether to claim the money back, and we will give you a fair chance to have the decision reviewed before asking for it. If you agree the overpayment is correct, we will arrange a repayment plan with you.

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How will I make my repayments?

If you were overpaid housing benefit and are still receiving it, or if you are a landlord receiving direct payments, we may deduct the money from your future payments. We will write to you with details before we do it.

If you are no longer receiving housing benefit we will send you an invoice, with advice on how to pay it. Please click on Payment Methods within Related Content for further information on how to pay.

If you were overpaid council tax benefit, we will take the repayments from your account with us.

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What if I disagree with your decision?

You can ask for a revision of the decision, as long as you do it in writing within a month of the date we wrote to you about the overpayment. If, after this, you still disagree, then you may appeal. See the appeals section of this site for more about how to do this.

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