Housing benefit overpayments – further information
Every five to six years, the calendar makes it so we have 53 Mondays instead of the usual 52. This coming financial year, 2024 / 2025, is one of those special years.
If you get Universal Credit, the Department for Work and Pensions will only pay for 52 weeks of your rent in a year. In a 53 week financial year, this means there will be one week of rent that will not be covered by Universal Credit.
Find out what we're doing to help and what to do if you're affected and already struggling with the cost of living.
An overpayment is when an amount of housing benefit has been paid for which there was no entitlement under the regulations.
If we have decided to reclaim a housing benefit overpayment you can dispute the decision.
We will seek to reclaim overpayments, either from the person who caused the overpayment or from the person who received the overpayment. We may also decide to take criminal proceedings in respect of fraudulent overpayments.
A fraudulent overpayment may occur when a person deliberately gives a false statement or document, or has deliberately failed to report a change of circumstances with the intention of obtaining or retaining benefit.