Housing and Council Tax Benefits
What happens if I am overpaid Benefits?
What is an overpayment?
An overpayment is any amount of benefit which has been paid to
you but you were not entitled to receive.
If we pay you too much benefit, we can usually ask you to pay
back what we've overpaid.
Why do overpayments happen?
They happen for various reasons. Here are some examples:
- you may have given us wrong information
- you may not have told us something that we needed to know about
- you may have been slow to tell us about a change
- we may have made an error
We might have to work out the amount of your benefit again because of a change in your circumstances or because we've found we've made a mistake. If you then get less benefit and we've already paid you the higher amount, there will be an overpayment.
In the case of Council Tax Benefit, we pay benefit for a whole year at the start of the year. It's quite likely that something will change during the year and we will find that we've paid too much, or too little, for the rest of the year.
Please note that there may be a delay in the time it takes between a change happening, you telling us and us dealing with it. Even if you tell us straightaway and we deal with it quickly, it is often impossible to avoid some overpayment.
Can you ask me for the money back?
We can ask for the money back if it:
- was your fault;
- was not our fault; or
- was our fault but you could have realised you were being overpaid.
For example, if you got a pay rise, you would expect your benefit to go down. In this case, if your benefit doesn't change you should realise something may be wrong. We can't ask for it back if it's our fault and you couldn't have realised you were getting too much.
Will you expect me to pay the money back?
We will not ask you to pay back overpayments that were our fault, unless we decide you should have known you were being overpaid. We won't ask you to repay if we think this is unreasonable. but, otherwise, we usually expect you to pay us back.
How do you get the money back?
We can get the money back in the following ways.
From your Council Tax account
For Council Tax Benefit we will take the overpaid benefit back out of your account and you will get a new Council Tax bill with more to pay. The Council Tax office will try and collect this money from you, for example, by increasing your monthly instalments. If you don't pay they may get a court order or send bailiffs to your home. So, if you have a problem paying, get in touch with the Council Tax office before it gets serious.
From instalments of your Housing Benefit
For Housing Benefit, if you're still on benefit we can take money out of each week's benefit to recover the overpayments. There are legal limits to how much we can take each week. If the amount we take each week causes you a problem, please tell us. We might be able to change it and take a smaller amount.
From your rent account, if you are a council tenant
If you are a council tenant and your rent account is in credit, we may take this credit off the account but we won't put your account into arrears. If your account is in arrears and you're still on benefit we can take money out of each week's benefit to recover the overpayments.
By using other money we owe you
If we owe you benefit for another period, we can hold on to the money and use it to repay your overpayment. This is called 'offsetting'.
By sending you an invoice
We may send you an overpayment invoice and letter so you can make arrangements to pay. If you can't pay all at once, we can arrange instalments, so please contact our Overpayment Recovery Section on 01329 824669. Alternatively you can email us at benefits@fareham.gov.uk. But if we don't hear from you, we may register the debt with the county court and ask them to enforce it. This is the same as having a court order against you, so it will affect your credit rating. Alternatively, we may refer your debt to a debt collection agency.
From your landlord
If we've been paying your benefit to a private landlord or housing association, we may ask them to repay the money.
Other ways we can get the money back
We can ask the Department for Work and Pensions to take money out of your social security benefits.
We can also ask another council to take money out of any Housing Benefit they are paying you.
Will you tell me if I've been overpaid?
Yes, we have to tell you about any overpayment and the action we will take. First, we will write to tell you the new, lower amount of benefit you're entitled to, or we will tell you when you stopped being entitled. We will also tell you how much you've been overpaid. This letter may:
- tell you how we're getting the money back; or
- say that we'll be in touch about paying it back
If so, we'll write to you again to tell you what we're doing or to ask you to send us the money, or to tell you we'll take no further action. Ask us for more details if you don't think it's clear what we've decided. You have a legal right to ask for the reasons for our decision. Our decision letters will explain your rights relating to each decision and tell you about time limits for disputing any decision that has been made.
What are my rights?
- You have a right to ask for the reasons for our decision. You have to ask in writing and sign the letter and send it to us.
- You have a right to ask us to change our decision and have one month from the date of our decision letter to do this. You must make it clear which decision you don't agree with and say why you think we've got it wrong. We'll look at our decision again and write to you with the result
- You have a right to appeal to an independent appeal tribunal on some overpayment decisions.
You can do this straightaway when you write to ask us to change our decision or, you can ask us to change our decision first, then appeal if you're not satisfied with our response. Appeals are heard by tribunals run by the Tribunal Service which are independent of local authorities. Appeals must be in writing and signed by you. You must make it clear which decision you're appealing against and your reasons for appeal. Send your appeal directly to us. Appeals must usually reach us within a month of the decision you're appealing against.
You can find out further information regarding appeals from the section 'Requests for further Information and Appeals '
Can overpayments be reduced?
Yes, overpayments can sometimes be reduced. Here we give two examples -'Offsetting' and 'Underlying entitlement'
Offsetting
After we've decided that you've been overpaid, we may get more information that makes us change our decision. In this case, we'll tell you our new decision about how much you're entitled to. If this is more than before, the overpayment will be lower than before or you may not have been overpaid after all. We call this 'offsetting'. We offset the extra money due against what we originally decided was overpaid. Of course, if we've already recovered the overpayment from you, we'll pay you the extra.
Underlying entitlement
If your Housing Benefit or Council Tax Benefit claim is cancelled , for example, because we have just found out that you were not entitled to Income Support or Jobseeker's Allowance for a past period, you will have been overpaid benefit. However, if you are able to provide evidence of all your income, savings and investments for the period of the overpayment, we can assess the amount of benefit that you would have been entitled to if we had known your correct circumstances at the time. If we award benefit for the period of the overpayment it is called 'underlying entitlement' and we will use it to reduce the total amount of the overpaid benefit. If we are able to do this, we'll tell you our new decision about how much you're now entitled to. If this is more than before, the overpayment will be lower than before and you may not have been overpaid after all.
What if there's an overpayment but you've been paying my landlord?
If you're the tenant of a private landlord or a housing association, we may have been paying your Housing Benefit direct to them. We may have paid too much and the overpayment may be one where we can ask for the money back. In these cases we could ask you to pay us back, or we could ask your landlord because they've received the money. We have to decide and tell you our decision. You do have a right to ask us to look at our decision again if we choose you rather than the landlord. If you're a landlord you have a right to ask us to look at our decision again if you think we should ask the tenant. In general, if we decide the tenant caused the overpayment and the landlord couldn't have known about it, we would expect the tenant to repay.
How can I pay back money to you if I receive an invoice?
Repayments of Housing Benefit may be made by any of these methods:
Direct Debit
This is our preferred method of payment.
- You don't have to remember to make your payments
- Payments will still be made while you are away
- You will always have the protection of the direct debit guarantee
- It is cost effective for the Council
There is a choice of 4 payment dates only when you pay by Direct Debit (5th, 15th or 22nd of each month).
To pay by direct debit, you can:
- Download the Direct Debit Instruction (158 Kb
). Please print the form, complete it and return to us at the address shown on the form - Contact us on 01329 824669 and we will send you a form to complete and return
On-line
In partnership with Capita Business services you can pay online using your debit card for a range of Council Services, including Housing Benefit, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. When using this facility, your details are transmitted in a secure and confidential way.
By telephone (24 hour service)
Using a 'Touch Tone' phone, call 0845 6066 876 with your debit card details ready. (Please note that credit cards are not accepted)
By telephone (office hours)
Call 01329 824669 with your debit card details ready. (Please note that credit cards are not accepted)
In Person
You can pay in person at the Banking Hall by debit card (using a Chip and Pin machine), cheque, cash or postal order. Please ensure that you have your invoice with you.
By post
By cheque or postal order. Please do not send cash. Cheques should be made payable to 'Fareham Borough Council' and you must quote your invoice number on the back of your cheque.
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