Overpayments

An overpayment of benefit occurs when you receive too much money. For example:

You have left the property but payments continue to be made.
You have started work but your benefit payments are based upon Income Support which has now stopped.

When an overpayment has been identified we will work out

The amount of the overpayment
The period of the overpayment
The reason it has occurred.
Whether it is recoverable and if so, from whom and by which method

When is an overpayment recoverable?

We are able to recover most overpayments. The only exception is when we make a mistake and you could not have been expected to know that you had been overpaid. For example, if we had awarded you benefit based on your rent being £690.00 weekly rather than monthly, we would consider that you could be expected to know the amount you received was incorrect. It is therefore essential that you not only advise us of any changes but also of any errors which have been made.

Who is the overpayment recoverable from?

An overpayment can be recovered from:

The person who claimed the benefit (eg yourself), or
The person who received the payment (eg your landlord)

Notification

If you have been overpaid we will write and advise you. This will happen even if we are going to recover the overpayment from your landlord or a 3rd party. The letter will provide you with the following information:

That the overpayment is recoverable
Why it has occurred
The amount of the overpayment ( and the amount which is recoverable)
How the overpayment has been calculated (e.g. 2 weeks at £50.00)
The period it relates to
The way we plan to recover the overpayment (method of recovery)
Your right to request a written statement and to appeal

If you have been overpaid Housing & Council Tax Benefit then the letter will detail both overpayments separately. In addition to this, if it is Council Tax Benefit or 2nd Adult Rebate which has been overpaid then you will also receive a revised Council Tax bill.

Methods of recovery: Council Tax Benefit & Second Adult rebate

Generally, overpayments of Council Tax Benefit & Second Adult Rebate will be ‘added’ to your Council Tax account and you will receive a new bill. This is in addition to the overpayment letter and will show the new balance of Council Tax which is payable. It will also detail how this should be paid. If you have any queries about the payment of Council Tax please click here for more information on paying Council Tax or contact a member of staff.

Methods of recovery: Housing Benefit Overpayments

There are a number of methods of recovery available for Housing Benefit overpayments:

Reducing your current Housing Benefit payments.
Reducing your Welfare Benefits (eg income support, retirement pension).
Payment Arrangements.
Bulk Recovery (for landlords).
County court action (including Bailiffs, deductions from your salary, bankruptcy & garnishee orders)

Reducing your current Housing Benefit payments

If the overpayment is recoverable from you and you are still entitled to Housing Benefit from us, then we can reduce the payments by a set amount. We may also use a credit of Housing Benefit to reduce your debt and this will be explained on your overpayment letter.

If the level of deductions or the use of a credit is causing you severe hardship you should contact the overpayment team explaining your situation and offering a lower amount. They will consider your request and contact you regarding their decision.

Reducing your Welfare Benefits

If you are receiving benefit payments from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), we can ask them to make deductions in order to recover the overpayment. This can include Income Support, Job Seekers Allowance, Incapacity Benefit and Retirement Pension. We are not able to use this method if we are paying you Housing Benefit, or a significant level of deductions is already being taken.

Payment Arrangements

We can issue you with an invoice for your overpayment and this will request that full payment is made within 28 days. However if you are unable to do this you should contact a member of staff to discuss a suitable arrangement.

Bulk Recovery (for landlords)

If we have decided to recover an overpayment from the landlord or 3rd party and they are receiving payment of Housing Benefit then we can deduct the debt from their future payments. This can be done even if the payments they receive are not in respect of the person to whom the overpayment arose.

County Court action

If we are unable to recover the debt by any of these methods, then we may choose to pursue it through the court. We would write to you and advise that we wish to recover the debt in that way and then apply to the court for a judgement. Once this has been done the court will write to both us and yourself, they will enclose a repayment form which you should complete and return. If we use this method and a judgement is granted then you will also incur additional costs. The level of costs will depend upon the amount of the outstanding overpayment (for example if the debt is £1325.00 then you will incur costs of £120.00). Once this has been granted additional recovery methods are then available to us. This can include the use of County Court Bailiffs, attachment of earnings, bankruptcy and garnishee orders.

Method of Recovery Description

County Court Bailiffs
We would instruct the bailiffs to recover the debt by either collecting
monies from you or by taking goods which can then be sold at auction.

Attachment to earnings
We would request that your employer makes deductions directly from
your salary. The level of these deductions is specified in law and will
depend on the level of your salary.

A Garnishee Order This is also known as a 3rd party debt order and allows us to request
the money directly from your bank account.

Bankruptcy We can apply to make you bankrupt if the debt is over £750.00

A Charging Order We can place a charging order on your assets (eg a property, shares
or an investment) and this will prevent you selling these until we have
been repaid.

Underlying entitlement

In some cases we are able to reduce your overpayment, based upon your new circumstances – this is called Underlying Entitlement. For example, if we are told that you have stopped receiving Income Support, and we then cancel your Housing Benefit claim resulting in an overpayment. If you are able to provide evidence of income, savings and capital for yourself, your partner and members of the household, for the period of the overpayment, we can assess the amount of benefit that you would have been entitled to. This amount will then be used to reduce the overpayment.

If you feel that you may be eligible for underlying entitlement you should contact us and provide the following in respect of the overpayment period:

Proof of your income; and
Proof of your savings; and
Details of anyone who was living with you as part of your household (including name date of birth & relationship); and
Proof of any income received by anyone in your household

You should provide this as soon as possible so that we may amend/reconsider the amount of the overpayment.

Written statements

Your overpayment notification should clearly explain the overpayment and how we intend to recover it. However, if anything is not clear or you have a query you can ask us for a written statement. This can be done in the following ways, and you should clearly state which issue you would like explained.

In writing to the following address: The Benefit Section Liberata (L B Southwark) P.O.BOX 782 Bromley BR1 3YE
By email southwarkopsuk@liberata.com

Although this can be requested at any time it would be wise to do so within one calendar month of the date of the notification, before the appeal rights expire.

Overpayment reconsideration and appeals

If you disagree with our decision, you can write to us stating that you wish to appeal. You must do this within one month of the original decision date and should clearly state which decision you would like us to look at and why you believe it was wrong. You should also provide us with any additional information which will support your request.

Once we have reconsidered our initial decision we will write to you explaining whether we have amended the decision and our reasons. If we have not changed our original decision, then we will automatically pass your appeal to an Independent Tribunal (The Appeals Service) and provide you with details of the process. More information on this stage of the process can be found on the Appeals Service website (www.appeals-service.gov.uk).

An appeal can only be made by an "affected person". By this we mean the claimant, an appointee or the person from whom we are seeking recovery. The table below provides examples of the decisions that can be appealed against as well as those that cannot.

You can appeal against: You cannot appeal against:

Whether the overpayment is recoverable
The person(s) the overpayment is to be recovered from
The calculation of the overpayment
The calculation of the underlying entitlement

Whether the overpayment shoud be recovered
The method of recovery
The recovery rate (although you can ask the Council to cpnsider hardship)

If there is any doubt as to whether an appeal can be made, it is best to contact a member of staff for more information. However, it should be remembered that the appeal must be made within one month of the original decision date.