Agenda item

Purpose of Report

To provide the Joint Committee with an update on the recovery of housing benefit overpayments.

Decision

(1)       That the report be noted.

(2)       That the Joint Committee supports plans to continue the ‘housing benefit overpayment action plan’ in relation to the areas outlined in the report for 2018/19, including re-allocation of resources to undertake this work.

Alternative Options Considered and Rejected

None.

Reason for Decision

It was noted that housing benefit overpayments occurred for a variety of reasons. Due to the nature of the relatively large amounts of housing benefit being paid over an extended period, individual overpayments could be sizeable and, for some debts, could take many years to recover at standard weekly rate deductions from ongoing housing benefit entitlement and Department for Work and Pensions benefits.

As at the end of quarter three, the value of outstanding overpayments for the City of Lincoln and North Kesteven were £4,248,202 and £1,823,546 respectively. From quarter two this was an increase for the City of Lincoln of £126,979 and a decrease for North Kesteven of £29,729. Appendix 1 to the report highlighted the current recovery status of housing benefit overpayments for both the City of Lincoln and North Kesteven. It provided a breakdown of the number and value of overpayments for both council and private tenants. The table at paragraph 4.2 of the report showed the value of overpayments raised so far in 2017/18 and how this equated to the total value of housing benefit paid out.

An update on the 2017/18 action plan was included within the report.

In terms of the 2018/19 action plan it was noted that the level of resource allocated to overpayments needed to be reviewed, due to the uncertainty of central government funding within the Revenues and Benefits Service. A report on the outcome of this review would be reported to the Joint Committee on 12 June 2018 along with a proposed timetable of work for 2018/19.

Reference was made to the Department for Work and Pensions’ offer of free consultancy work to assist with delivery of the action plan and identify any other initiatives that may be introduced. This offer had been accepted and would be on the basis of a ‘critical friend’, with a representative from the Department for Work and Pensions scheduled to meet with officers on 27 February 2018.

Discussion ensued on the reasons why housing benefit overpayments were made, with one of the main reasons being that people were failing to report changes in their circumstances. A question was raised as to whether there was anything that could be done in an electronic or automated capacity to assist in reminding people to report a change in their circumstances. A campaign had been considered previously through text messaging but this proved relatively unsuccessful due to people’s information becoming out of date and approximately 50% of the messages being undelivered when used for another purpose.

It was noted that the Shared Service did have links with HMRC who shared ‘real-time’ information which would indicate any changes in income. This was one of the reasons why more overpayments had been registered as prior to this sharing of information so many changes in income may not have been known.

Members also discussed the importance of people understanding what they were entitled to claim, noting that information and examples were set out on the back of benefits notifications.