What if I am overpaid a tenant's Housing Benefit?

If a landlord receives a tenant's Housing Benefit directly and the tenant's circumstances change, this can create an overpayment. If this happens, we may ask the landlord to repay the money that has been overpaid or recover the overpayment by making deductions to the tenant's Housing Benefit payments.

If we ask the landlord to repay the overpayment, we will send them an invoice. The invoice will show the name of the tenant and the amount of overpayment.

Sometimes, as a last resort, if a landlord does not repay an overpayment of Housing Benefit that they have received directly, the Benefits team can arrange to recover the outstanding amount from future payments of Housing Benefit due to other tenants. If we do this, the landlord is not entitled to recover the money from the tenant.

You can find out more about this legislation in Part 3: Section 75 of the Social Security Administration Act 1992 (opens new window).