If you have been overpaid Housing Benefit (HB), you will usually be asked to pay it back.
If you are still receiving HB we will collect the money you owe by taking a weekly deduction from your HB award.
If you are no longer entitled to claim HB we will send you a bill for the outstanding amount of the overpayment. You can pay back overpaid housing benefit online once you have your reference number from the bill.
If you receive a bill, you should either pay it in full, or complete an income and expenditure form and propose an instalment arrangement.
If you don't repay the money and we don't hear from you, we may take further action to collect the outstanding debt:
- if you receive Universal Credit, Income Support, Income Based Job Seekers Allowance or Employment Support Allowance, we can ask the DWP to make weekly/monthly deductions from your benefits on our behalf
- if you are employed we can contact your employer and ask them to make weekly/monthly deductions from your wages/salary until the overpayment is cleared
- we can refer the debt to a collection agent to recover from you on our behalf
- we can refer the debt to the courts and ask court appointed Enforcement Agents to collect it for us
To avoid an overpayment of HB occurring in the first place, you need to report any changes in your circumstances as soon as they happen.