Receiving an invoice
If you cannot make the overpayment amounts from ongoing benefit payments we'll send you an invoice. Full payment should be made within 15 days. You'll find details of the methods of payment on the invoice.
If you cannot make the payments, please contact us to discuss a suitable arrangement.
Unpaid invoices
If you do not pay in full or make an acceptable arrangement, we'll take further action in the following order:
- refer the account to a debt collection agency
- apply to your employer to recover the overpayment from your earnings. This is called a Direct Earnings Attachment (DEA) (PDF 158Kb)
- take County Court action against you if payment is delayed even further. We'll write to you first to let you know that we wish to recover the debt, and then we'll apply to the court for a judgment. This may result in additional costs being added to your account. Court action could also have an adverse effect on your credit rating
If we've decided to recover an overpayment from the landlord and they're receiving payment of Housing Benefit, we can deduct the debt for their future payments. We can do this even if the payments they receive are not in respect of the person to whom the overpayment arose.