How a housing benefit overpayment is recovered from tenants and landlords
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.
Recovering an overpayment from a tenant
If the tenant is currently getting housing benefit, we will recover the overpayment from future benefit payments by a weekly deduction known as a 'claw-back'.
If we pay the landlord directly, the benefit payment that we issue every four weeks will go down to reflect the tenant's reduced entitlement. The tenant is responsible for paying any rent arrears that occur as a result of the reduced amount paid to the landlord.
If the tenant is not currently getting housing benefit, the overpayment will be passed to sundry debtors and may be recovered from other benefits or will be processed through the sundry debtors’ process.
Recovery of an overpayment will not prejudice any criminal proceedings that we may take in respect of fraudulent overpayments.
Recovering an overpayment from a landlord
If we have decided to recover an overpayment from a landlord they will have been notified via a decision notice. If all other methods fail, we can make deductions from other tenants' benefit paid to that landlord. The amount of these deductions should not be treated as rent arrears for those tenants, and the landlord must not try to recover the shortfall from them.
Recovery of an overpayment will not prejudice any criminal proceedings that we may take in respect of fraudulent overpayments.
Is there a right of appeal?
The benefit claimant can ask for a review of a decision to calculate an overpayment. You should make any such request within one month of the decision notice.
If the overpayment is owed by the landlord personally, they will be notified in writing of a decision to recover payment. You should make any request for a review within one month of the decision notice.
A landlord can write to us within one calendar month of the decision notice to request a statement of reasons for a decision.
Appeals should be posted to:
The Housing Benefit Team
Po Box 58996
SE6 9JD