Council Tax & Housing Benefit
Information for Landlords - Recovery of Overpayments
When we pay Housing Benefit directly to a Landlord and their
tenant's entitlement to Housing Benefit changes we may ask the
Landlord to repay the money which has been overpaid.
Each case is decided on its merits. If we decide that it is
appropriate to recover the money form the Landlord we will invoice
him or her. The invoice will show the period in which the
overpayment occurred, the name of the tenant and the amount of
overpayment. If a Landlord has difficulty repaying the money we may
be able to negotiate repayment by instalments.
If a Landlord fails to make repayments of overpaid Housing
Benefit we can recover outstanding payments from any future
payments of Housing Benefit due to be paid to the Landlord. We are
reluctant to recover overpayments in this way but occasionally we
are forced to do so. If we do invoke these powers it means that for
each tenant in respect of whom Housing Benefit is being paid the
amount of their entitlement will be offset against the
overpayment.
In these cases the Landlord must reduce the tenant's rent
liability by the full value of their Housing Benefit entitlement.
The Landlord is not entitled to seek to recover the monies from
their tenant.
The legislation that enables this is contained within Section 16
of the Social Security Administration Act 1997.
Contact: Housing Benefit
Email: revenues@dover.gov.uk
Tel: 01304 872180
