Pay your housing benefit overpayment in the Ryedale area

The invoice you receive will tell you how and where you can repay your overpayment. When making any repayments you will need your invoice number.

Housing Benefit overpayments form

You can make repayments to your overpayment through the online overpayments form. Please make a note of your transaction number in case you need to contact us about the payment.

Alternative options to make a repayment include:

Phone: You can make repayments by TouchTone payments using a debit or credit card by ringing the Freephone number 0800 035 1566.

Standing order: Repayments can be made directly from your bank or building society by standing order. A letter will then be sent to you confirming the instalments and our bank details to then set up the standing order.

Post office or Paypoint: Repayments can be made at any post office or anywhere displaying the Paypoint logo. To pay here, you will need to take your invoice to show the barcode. A receipt will provide proof of payment.

We will send you a letter telling you how much you owe, the period of the overpayment, and why you have been overpaid.

If you are the landlord, we will tell you who the overpayment is for, their address, the period, and the amount of the overpayment.

If we are going to ask you to pay back the overpayment, we will contact you again to tell you how this will be done. If you do not agree that you have received an overpayment, you may want to appeal.

There are several ways we can recover this money, including:

• if you are still getting Housing Benefit, your benefit may be reduced each week to recover the overpayment
• if you no longer qualify for benefit, an invoice may be sent to you to be paid in full or in instalments
• if your landlord was paid your benefit, we may ask the landlord to repay the overpayment

We have a duty to recover overpayments of benefit if you are not entitled to them. Where necessary, we can take criminal proceedings in respect of fraudulent overpayments.

If you do not respond and fail to set up a repayment plan or pay the invoice in full, then the next stage of recovery could be put in place. If you do not pay your invoice you will be sent a final demand after one month.

The recovery option could be one of the following:

• direct earnings attachment - if you are working we can request from your employer direct deductions from your wages to recover the overpayment
• deductions from state benefits - we can request from the Department for Work and Pensions for deductions to state benefits, such as Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payments, to repay your overpayment
• debt recovery agents - we could ask debt recovery agents to collect your overpayment
• collection by other local authorities - if you have moved out of the area and are claiming Housing Benefit at another local authority we can ask the new council to reduce your ongoing Housing Benefit to recover the overpayment
• court action - we could register the debt with the courts. This will mean further costs which you will have to pay