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.
Please select from the following menu:
Documents Available
The Landlord Accreditation Scheme (pdf document)
Housing Health and Safety Rating System (pdf document)
Contact: Housing Benefit
Email: revenues@dover.gov.uk
Tel: 01304 872180
