Overpayments

If you receive more Housing Benefit than you are entitled to, this is called an overpayment. We will usually ask you to pay it back.

Why you have been overpaid

Overpayments usually happen when there is a change in your circumstances you have not told us about. This includes changes to your income, capital, rent and people that you live with or your living arrangements.

Other causes include:

• Delays in processing a change in your circumstances. We try to prevent this by suspending your Housing Benefit until we make a new decision.
• False information provided on purpose, known as fraud. If you suspect someone is getting benefits that they shouldn't, you can report it online.
• Errors in data from the Department for Work and Pensions or when entering information into our system.

Paying back overpaid Housing Benefit

Most overpayments must be repaid. However, if the overpayment was due to an error by ourselves or the Department for Work and Pensions, and you couldn’t reasonably have known about it, you may not have to repay it.

It’s important to check your benefit decision letters for any errors.

If you're still receiving Housing Benefit

We’ll recover the overpayment from your Housing Benefit payments. The Government sets the amount we will deduct. Typically, we’ll deduct £13.65 per week. For overpayments due to fraud, it will be £22.75. If this deduction creates financial hardship, contact the Benefits Team.

If you're no longer receiving Housing Benefit

You’ll receive an invoice for the full amount owed, with payment instructions. For questions or payment arrangements, contact our Customer Accounts Team at hbdebtors@dacorum.gov.uk or call 01442 228678 / 228315.

If you disagree with the overpayment

If you think that our decision is wrong, you can ask us to look at it again.

Failing to repay an overpayment

If we send you an invoice and you do not arrange a repayment plan, we will use other ways to recover the overpayment.

• Deduction from other benefits - We may ask the Department for Work and Pensions to deduct money from other benefits you receive (such as Universal Credit) to repay the overpayment. We cannot deduct from Child Benefit, Guardian's Allowance, Working Tax Credit, or Child Tax Credit.

• Direct Earnings Attachment (DEA) - We may contact your employer to have the overpayment deducted from your salary. Find out more about DEAs.