Civil penalty fine for housing benefit

[dairymilkgalaxy]

I have received a penalty fine notice from the council relating to an overpayment of housing benefit I received earlier this year.
The amount was for £300, the overpayment notice was given in early July and I have repaid it in full at £100 monthly (my payments were lowered to repay it).
All information I have seen online states that the penalty should be issued along with the overpayment notice and taken with the repayment.
I dont understand why it's taken 5months to issue the penalty (letter dated 5.12).

Just wondered if anyone else has had this and if its worth appealing the fine due to the length of time or if I should suck it up as I had made the original mistake which created the overpayment?

I have no idea about this, but if you could print off the info and phone, or go to the council office and show them what you've read, you should have a better idea. Some of the workers can be obtuse.