Housing And Council Tax Benefit Overpayments

Housing and Council Tax Benefit Overpayments

When we give you too much benefit, we call it an 'overpayment'. An overpayment is an amount of benefit that has been paid, but for which there was no entitlement under the Regulations. An example would be if a claimant failed to tell us that their income had increased, and a recalculation of their entitlement meant that they had been paid too much benefit. We may also decide to take criminal proceedings in respect of fraudulent overpayments.

An overpayment is recoverable from either the person who caused the overpayment or the person who received the overpayment.

If we give you too much benefit, we will send you a letter. The letter we send you will tell you:

• why we gave you too much benefit
• how much the overpayment is
• if you have to pay back the amount
• how you can appeal if you think this is wrong

If the overpayment relates to Council Tax benefits, in most cases we will send you a revised Council Tax bill, and you will usually have to pay more Council Tax.

The claimant can ask for a review of a decision to calculate an overpayment. Any such request should be made within one month of the decision notice.

For further information on appeals please see the information on Housing and Council Tax Benefit Appeals.