Housing benefit overpayments
An overpayment is when we pay you or your landlord an amount of housing benefit or council tax support, but you were not entitled to receive it. If we have paid you too much, you will need to pay back the amount we have overpaid.
They happen for various reasons including not telling us about a change of income (work or benefits), address or household members.
You must tell us about any changes straight away because it takes us time to deal with them.
Even if you have told the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) about your change in circumstances, you must still let us know and not leave it to the DWP to tell us.
Pay your housing benefit overpayment
Reducing your overpayment
In some circumstances, we may be able to reduce the amount we overpaid you if you tell us about your correct circumstances throughout the period of the overpayment - this is called 'underlying entitlement'. We may ask you to fill in a new form to explain your circumstances and give us documents as proof (such as details of your income and bank statements for the period) before we work out your underlying entitlement.
If we find that you are entitled to any benefit for this period we can only use this amount to reduce an overpayment, it is not an award of housing benefit or council tax support.
Please email [email protected]
Appealing an overpayment
If you don't agree with our original benefits decision, you must always appeal in writing within one month of the date on the notification letter if you want us to look at the decision again. If you do not understand the notification letter, you can contact us for a more detailed explanation or request a written statement of reasons.
Once we have received your appeal we will ensure that a different officer looks at the claim again. After the claim has been revised we will notify you of the outcome in writing. If you still disagree with the decision, the second stage is to appeal to an independent appeal tribunal administered by the appeals service. The tribunal will look at your case again to decide whether the correct decision has been made.
Please email [email protected]
Unable to pay overpayment
The council can apply to the county court for help to recover a debt where repayment has not been made and other methods of recovery have failed.
The council will apply to the court for an order of payment and an officer of the court will make the decision to grant the order. Your debt will be registered as a judgment of the court and a copy of the order will be sent to you and to the council.
If county court action is taken you must contact the council when you receive a copy of the order to make an arrangement to pay. If you don’t the council will take action to enforce the order in one of the following ways:
- Warrant of execution: Court enforcement officers will either collect the debt from you or take certain goods from your household to sell at auction to clear the debt
- Attachment of earnings or benefit: Your employer or the Department for Work and Pensions will be contacted by the court and be told to take an amount from your weekly or monthly income to clear the debt
- Third party debt order: The court will ‘freeze’ your bank or building society account(s) to allow the debt to be recovered from them
- Charging order: This means that if you sell your property, land or investments, the amount you owe the council will be deducted from the proceeds
- Bankruptcy: If you owe the council more than £5,000 we may apply to the court to make you bankrupt - we may ask the county court to ask you to attend court for questioning - this will help us decide which enforcement action to take - they will ask you questions about your income, assets and outgoings and will pass this information on to us
If you would like us to consider setting an arrangement on your invoice please email [email protected]
If you are unable to make any payments at all please complete the income and expenditure form and someone will be in contact with you.
Last updated 30 April 2026