£5500 housing benefit overpayment, please help!

[sjme]

Hello everyone,

I'm not sure if I've posted in the right section.
Basically, my partner and I have just been notified of a huge overpayment of housing benefit over the course of 10 months.
I thought that tax credits and hmrc updated the council about our income but this is not the case. They were not aware that my partner started a part time job and that I returned to work after my maternity leave. Because of this we have been overpaid by that huge amount.
We're absolutely mortified about this and fully intend to pay it back, we in no way did this on purpose. I mange the finances so I just assumed that the amount was correct and put it toward our rent. This has come as a huge shock.
My question is has anyone else had an overpayment like this and what happened?
The council have said it will probably be passed onto fraud as its over a certain amount and we are terrified!
Any advice is so appreciated. We have 3 young children.

Thank you

Hmm, did you not notice? £5500 over 10 months is an extra £550 a month you must have wondered where is came from?

I'd be v surprised if they considered it fraud.

Think about how you could pay it back and go to them with a proposal.

Are you able to offer to repay a sum?

The tricky thing here is that HB sends the calculations with the award letters. Did you not read them/not notice that the job was missing? I'd be surprised if they consider it fraud, but you're going to have to convince them that you're just very negligent with your finances, I'm afraid.

Don't panic. As long as you haven't actually lied on a form they sent you, you aren't likely to be found guilty of fraud. You should have told them about your changes but it is easy to overlook these things, especially as you often need to tell several different agencies (eg Jobcentre, HMRC, council, etc).
Of course, you'll need to pay the money back but speak to the council to arrange repayments you can afford.
Just cooperate with the council and be honest.
You can speak to the Citizens Advice Bureau for more advice.

Hi everyone, thanks for your replies.
It's sound ridiculously unbelievable but I didn't question the amount, our rent was nearly £1000 per month so I just assumed it was right and didn't question it. Tax credits were aware and I assumed everything is available through PAYE now too.

Sorry sjme but if your council is anything like mine then in all the correspondence it clearly states you have to inform them of any change in circumstances!

you need to offer to pay it back immediately they sometimes won't bother with a fraud case if you do this

im afraid it is up to you to inform them its this situation which is why they are using universal credit then you only need to inform one person (allegedly) of your change in circumstances