Overpayments

How can I pay the money back?

Housing benefit

The overpayment can be paid back in one of the following ways:

  • If you are still receiving housing benefit or are a landlord getting direct benefit payments, we may deduct an amount from your weekly housing benefit entitlement and use it to reduce the overpayment. We will write and tell you before we do this and advise you of the weekly amount we will take. If you feel the reduction of your housing benefit is causing you hardship you can write and ask us to lower the amount. We may ask for more details before we do this
  • If your landlord was paid direct we may ask the landlord to repay us in certain circumstances
  • If you stop receiving housing benefit an invoice will be sent to you requesting repayment of the debt in full. You can pay this online at www.ealing.gov.uk/payinvoice or call our 24 hour payment line on 020 8825 9940. If you are not in a position to repay the full amount you will need to contact us on 020 8825 5997 to discuss paying by instalments.            

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Council tax reduction

Overpayments of council tax reduction are recoverable from all claimants who are of working age. Overpayments for those who have reached state pension credit age are recoverable unless caused by official error, which the claimant could not reasonably have been expected to know that it was an overpayment. 

If you have been overpaid council tax reduction we will debit your council tax account with the overpayment and send you a new council tax bill. This will increase the amount of council tax you owe. You will need to contact the council tax office to discuss repaying the amount due.

What further action will be taken if I do not make and maintain an offer to repay?

Please do not ignore our letters, the debt will not go away and you will become involved in further recovery action. This may mean additional costs added to the amount that you already owe.

Action that can be taken:

  • We can make deductions from other benefits you receive from the Department of Works and Pensions
  • The debt can be passed to collection agents - they will make direct contact with you to recover the debt
  • Landlords that have not repaid overpayments to the council can have the overpayment deducted in full from further housing benefit paid to them for other tenants
  • We can ask the county court to register the debt as an order of the court. This can be enforced as if it were a county court judgement.

The methods of enforcement after the debt has been registered at the county court are:

  • An attachment of earnings order, which means that your debt will be recovered by deductions from your salary  
  • A third party debt order, which attaches a debt owed to the claimant by a third party
  • A charging order
  • Bankruptcy.

If you have been asked to repay an overpayment and have not made an arrangement then you need to contact us to avoid any further action being taken by the council.

For more information and to make payments telephone the debt team on 020 8825 5997, Monday to Friday, 9am-4.30pm.