Housing Benefit overpayments

If you don’t pay or make an arrangement to pay, we’ll send you a final demand for payment.

If you still don’t pay, we can take steps to recover the money by:

• reducing your Housing Benefit
• reducing your other benefits from the Department for Work and Pensions
• asking your employer to give us a percentage of your wages if you are working
• using Housing Benefit paid to landlords for other tenants to recover an overpayment - this is only relevant for overpayments which we can recover directly from the landlord.  

We can recover overpayments from:

• the person claiming
• someone acting on behalf of the person claiming
• the person the Housing Benefit is paid to (including the landlord if we paid them direct)

If we can’t recover the money this way, we may ask a debt collector to visit your home.

We may then ask the County Court to issue an order for payment. This will increase the amount you owe because costs and interest will be added to the debt. It may also affect your ability to get credit in future.

We may apply to the court for:

• you to be made bankrupt: All your existing assets and your bank account will be frozen and controlled by the official receiver. You’ll be liable to pay our costs, plus the receiver’s costs (up to £2000) and any insolvency practitioner costs (up to £50,000 or more if the case is complex).  If you’re a homeowner, you may be forced to sell your house to settle your debts.
• a charging order on your property: You’ll be liable to pay costs and daily interest. We may also apply to enforce the order and sell your property.
• a warrant of execution giving court bailiffs the authority to seize goods: Your goods will be sold at public auction and the proceeds used to pay the debt you owe.
• an attachment of earnings order: This allows deductions to be made directly from your earnings.
• a third party debt order: This allows payment to be taken directly from your bank or building society accounts.