Housing benefits overpayments
An overpayment is any amount of Housing Benefit or Council Tax Benefit that you are not entitled to. We will take into account any benefit you should have received if you had told us of the change at the correct time. You can sometimes reduce an overpayment by telling us what your true circumstances were at the time of the overpayment.
You can avoid overpayments by telling us of changes in your circumstances immediately. If you know a change is going to happen in the future tell us before it happens.
You must tell us about
- changes in your income especially if entitlement to Income Support, Jobseekers Allowance or Pension Credit stops
- changes in your savings
- changes in the rent you pay
- if someone moves into or moves out of your household
- if someone in your household goes into hospital
- if you start work
- if you temporarily leave the property
- if you move out
This is not a complete list of every change you must tell us about. If you are not sure of whether or not to tell us of the changes you must tell us! Usually if you delay telling us of a change you will be worse off.
Landlords should tell us if they believe the tenant might have moved out. Landlords should also tell us of any other changes they are aware of that might affect the amount of benefit paid.
