Housing benefit overpayments

Overpayments usually happen when your circumstances change but we haven't changed your benefit to match your new situation.

Let us know about any change in your circumstances.

In almost all cases, overpaid benefit has to be repaid, even if it was paid because of our error. However, you may not have to repay the overpayment if it was our error and we could not have reasonably expected you to know you were getting an overpayment.

We can get back an overpayment from you or your landlord if you have one, depending on who we paid it to.　We take account of what caused the overpayment before we decide who to claim the money back from.

If there is an overpayment as a result of a fraudulent claim or a change of circumstances which the landlord could not reasonably have been expected to know about, we will ask you to repay the overpayment.

If we have contacted you recently to let you know that you have received an overpayment you can find out more information here.