Housing Benefit Overpayments

An overpayment is any amount of benefit which you are not legally entitled to.

There are a number of ways that you can be paid too much benefit. The main causes are not telling us about changes to your circumstances quickly or making mistakes or delays in processing your claim and fraudulent claims.

Most overpayments are recoverable regardless of how it happened. If it was our mistake we will only ask you to pay it back if we think you should have known your benefit was wrong.

If you no longer receive Housing Benefit we will send you an invoice. You can repay your overpayment by:
 

Direct debit: To set up a Direct Debit you can pay online or phone 0191 278 7878 and ask for Benefits, Monday from 8am to 6pm, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 8am to 4pm.

Pay by Direct Debit

Online and telephone banking: Make your payments to Lloyds Bank, account number  63352060, sort code 30-93-71. Please make sure that you quote the invoice number, which is on the front of your invoice.

Pay Online

Debit or credit cards: For debit or credit card telephone payments, please phone 0191 278 7878 Monday to Thursday between 8am and 6pm and between 8am and 4.30pm on Friday. Have your card, invoice number (shown on the front of the invoice), and a pen and paper to note your receipt number. The card holder must be present during the transaction.
 

If you are finding it difficult to repay your Housing Benefit overpayment you can make an arrangement to repay by instalments.

Apply to make an arrangement

If you are still entitled to Housing Benefit your overpayment will be recovered from your current award of Housing Benefit. If you are unable to afford the current overpayment recovery rate, you can request this to be reduced. 

Reduce Overpayment Recovery Rate