Can the overpayment be reduced?

Underlying entitlement
If you have been overpaid Housing and/or Council Tax Benefit, in some circumstances we may be able to reduce the overpayment by calculating underlying entitlement to benefit.

This is not an award of benefit, but a calculation of what you would have been entitled to had the council assessed your benefit with the correct information. This happens automatically in some cases, but in other situations you have to apply to us.

Example 1
You receive an increase in your income but forget to tell us until your next claim is due for review.

When we assess your claim, we include the increased income from the date it changed, and you are notified how much benefit you have been overpaid. In this example you have already had your underlying entitlement calculated, because we know what your circumstances were for this period and are able to calculate the underlying entitlement automatically.

Example 2
There are times when we do not know what your circumstances were. In this case, if your entitlement to income based job seekers allowance (JSA) stops, and the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) tell us that you have not been entitled to JSA for the last 6 months, we have to stop your Housing and/or Council Tax Benefit from that date and work out how much you have been overpaid since your JSA stopped.

However, if you told us that the reason behind your JSA stopping was the fact that you had started work, we could calculate if you would still have been entitled to some Housing and/or Council Tax Benefit during the overpaid period. This is called your underlying entitlement. The underlying entitlement would then reduce the overpayment. In this situation you would have to apply to us. Any remaining balance would then be recovered in the normal way.

You have to provide information to enable us to calculate underlying entitlement within 28 days of the date that you are notified that income support or job seekers allowance (income based) ends.

If you have to apply we will tell you and we will ask you to provide evidence of all income, capital and circumstances during the overpaid period(s). You do not need to complete a new form for the overpaid period, but you will have to for the new benefit period.

If you do not apply for underlying entitlement, the whole of the overpayment is payable.

Page last updated on 29 November 2011