West Norfolk Council Claw Back £779,000 From Claimants

West Norfolk Council reclaimed more than £700,000 during the first part of 2018 in overpaid housing benefit from claimants, latest figures have revealed.

The Department for Work and Pensions data shows the amount of money recovered by the local authority which was accidentally paid to people who are not entitled to benefits or who got paid more benefit than they should.

The latest figures show that, in the nine months to September, housing benefit claimants had to pay back £779,000 to the borough from overpayments.

Additionally, West Norfolk wrote off £49,000 of housing benefit overpayments.

In September 2018, the council still had £3 million of housing benefit overpayments outstanding.

Across Britain, overpayments during the period totalled £588 million, a 15 per cent drop compared with two years earlier.

During that nine-month period, local authorities recovered £506 million of housing benefit overpayments, while £74 million was written off. A total of £2.1 billion remained outstanding nationwide in September.

Housing charity Shelter says the rates at which “housing benefit overpayments are clawed back can be be incredibly high”.

Matthew Geer, campaigns manager at Turn2Us, a charity which works with people in financial difficulty, said: “The impact this can have one someone’s well-being is often overlooked and we speak to people every week struggling with their mental health as a result.”

A borough spokesperson said: “The majority of the overpayments we identify are due to a customer not telling us, or delaying telling us, about a change in their circumstances. In these cases we will recover the money wrongly claimed and paid to customers.

“Where an overpayment is caused by a mistake by the council or the DWP the overpayment is usually written off.

“We would encourage customers to contact us as soon as possible if they are experiencing difficulties with their repayments. We will always take a person’s circumstances into account and try to agree a realistic payment plan.

"We are able to adjust deductions from ongoing benefits to a lower amount if someone is struggling. The council has also contracted with Shelter to provide debt advice free of charge."

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