Over-payments of benefits and financial support
An over-payment is an amount which has been paid to you that you were not entitled to receive. It's important to report any change in your circumstances as soon as possible and answer letters or online notifications you get about over-payments quickly.
Reasons for over-payments of benefit
Over-payments can happen for several reasons, for example:
- you may not have told the benefit office about a change in circumstances or something it needed to know about
- you may have given incorrect information
- a mistake was made with your payment
The reason and period of your over-payment will be explained on your over-payment letter or notification on your Universal Credit account.
It will also tell you if you have to pay the money back.
Reporting a change in your circumstances
It is important to report all changes in circumstances straight away:
- who you tell depends on which benefits you get so you’ll need to report your change to more than one benefit office if you get more than one benefit
- you need to report changes to your circumstances, so you keep getting the right amount of benefits
- your claim might be stopped or reduced if you do not report a change straight away or you give incorrect information
If you don't declare a change of circumstances
You may be committing benefit fraud if you know you've been overpaid but don't do anything about it or deliberately fail to report a change in your personal circumstances.
If you're prosecuted for benefit fraud you could be fined or get a prison sentence, as well as having to repay the money.
If you disagree with the over-payment decision
If you disagree with the over-payment decision, contact the benefit office that sent the letter or notification on your Universal Credit account for an explanation.
If you aren’t satisfied with the explanation or the way your case has been handled, you can appeal.
Universal Credit Advances
If you have applied for Universal Credit and do not have enough money to live on, you can apply for an Advance loan.
If you already get Universal Credit, you may be able to get a Budgeting Advance loan.
More information on types of support available, application criteria and how to repay can be found at Universal Credit
Finance Support Service
The Finance Support Service supports people who live in Northern Ireland and need short-term financial help.
This includes Discretionary Support, Social Fund Budgeting loans and short-term benefit advances.
More information on the different types of loan, application criteria and how to repay can be found at Finance Support
Repayment difficulties with your over-payment or loan
If you are having difficulty repaying your benefit or Welfare Supplementary Payment over-payment, Social Fund or Discretionary Support loan, it’s important to act quickly.
Even if you have made contact before, you can ask to consider reducing the amount you repay.
If you feel your repayments are no longer affordable, you can ask for them to be reduced by contacting Debt Management Northern Ireland.
If you’re repaying a Universal Credit advance payment, login to your online account and add a note to your journal asking for your repayments to be reduced or call the free Universal Credit Helpline.
Paying the money back
If the over-payment was your fault, you'll have to pay it all back. If a mistake was made with your payment, you may still be asked to pay it back, particularly if you could reasonably be expected to realise you were being overpaid.
How you pay back the over-payment depends on whether you still receive benefits.
Making repayments if you are still receiving benefits
If you get a benefit, the amount you get will be reduced until you’ve paid back the money.
Making repayments if you no longer receive benefits
You’ll get a letter explaining how to Repay and manage benefit money you owe. You can pay back the over-payment in full by debit or credit card or set up regular monthly payments by direct debit.
Alternatively you can contact Debt Management Northern Ireland.
You will need your bank details or debit or credit card and reference number (usually your National Insurance Number or reference quoted on your letter) when you phone.
You should be aware that choosing to repay using a credit card may incur extra costs. This could include a transfer fee and interest charges, which will vary depending on the annual percentage rate (APR) charged by your credit card provider.
You can find further information on payment using credit cards at Credit cards and debt.
There is also useful information on A simple guide to credit cards
If you have concerns about your money or would like some free confidential debt advice, you can contact Advice NI
Paying by Cheque or postal order
These should be crossed and made payable to the 'Department for Communities only'.
You must write your National Insurance number on the back of your cheque and post it to Debt Management Northern Ireland.
If you don't respond to requests for payment
If you’ve not paid in full or set up a repayment plan and you’re employed, your employer may be asked to take deductions directly from your earnings.
This is called Direct Earnings Attachment.
Do not ignore repayment requests. If you are unable to set up a repayment plan and you don’t make contact with Debt Management Northern Ireland to discuss repayment.
Your debt may be referred to a debt collection agency or court action against you may be considered.
Any fees owed in taking this action will be added to your over-payment (debt) and recovered from you.
Waiving recovery of an over-payment
In exceptional circumstances recovery of all or part of an over-payment and Recoverable Hardship Payments may be waived.
There needs to be very specific grounds to show that your circumstances will only improve by waiver of the over-payment.
Further information is available at: Waiving recovery of an over-payment
Other over-payments
Housing Benefit and Rate Relief
If your Welfare Supplementary Payment, Housing Benefit, Universal Credit Housing Costs or Rate Relief is paid directly to your landlord, they may be asked to repay the money if they caused or contributed to the over-payment. If the over-payment was your fault, you may have to repay it.
Tax Credit over-payments
Tax Credits ended on 5 April 2025. If you received Tax Credits and were overpaid, you can repay the money as a lump sum or in instalments.
HMRC will write to you to provide you with details of your unpaid debt balance as well as an explanation of what will happen next.
If you now receive Universal Credit, your tax credit debt will normally be recovered from your Universal Credit award.
If your Universal Credit award stops, the debt will be recovered by other available methods.
Repayments when someone has died
Benefit over-payments may be recovered from a person’s estate.
An over-payment could have happened because, for example, the person who died:
- had more savings than they declared in their benefit claim
- had not declared an income
- was in hospital or a nursing home and did not advise of this change
If you’re dealing with the estate, you will be contacted about arrangements to repay from the estate or requesting further information once probate has been granted.
If you do not provide the information asked for, the over-payment will be calculated based on the probate figure before any deductions (that is, the whole estate).
You should not distribute the estate until you know what needs to be repaid. If you do, you may have to pay back the money yourself.
If you wish to set up a repayment plan or need to discuss repayment further, you can call or write to Debt Management.