Guidance

Benefit overpayment recovery: staff guide

A DWP staff guide about how overpayments of benefits are recovered.

• From: Department for Work and Pensions
• Published: 8 February 2017
• Last updated: 28 May 2025
  Show all updates

  1. 28 May 2025

     Changes have been made to the page, including: Introduction Page, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Appendix 2, 4, 5, 6 and 7.

  2. 20 December 2024

     Deduction rates for Universal Credit to show April 2024 figures added, along with amendments throughout to make it clearer to understand.

  3. 31 January 2024

     Various changes made to Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 5, Chapter 6 and Appendices 2 and 5, regarding legacy benefit, civil penalties, recovery rates and debt abandonment.

  4. 1 June 2023

     Benefit overpayment recovery guide updated to version 3.10 dated April 2023.

  5. 22 February 2023

     Updated paragraph 5.85 relating to outstanding Social Fund debt and subsequent paragraphs for chapter 5 re numbered.

  6. 1 February 2023

     Paragraph 2.19 - It has been clarified when to recover SMOP. Paragraph 5.83 - The Social Fund write-off policy has been clarified. New paragraph 5.113 - If a debtor refuses to pay their debt, then the Department can take enforcement action to recover the debt, including civil action to obtain a CCJ (County Court Judgement). New paragraphs 6.31 and 6.32 to explain the Debt Respite Scheme (Breathing Space)

  7. 23 December 2022

     Updated Benefit overpayment recovery guide chapter 8.

  8. 20 April 2022

     Benefit overpayment recovery guide updated to version 2.80.

  9. 9 February 2022

     Benefit overpayment recovery guide updated to version 2.70. Replaced chapter 8 following a change to the waiver policy.

  10. 12 May 2021

      Added a section relating to when a claimant is in prison (5.114) and also amended the details about Maximum deduction rates (Appendix 4 – Priority of Deductions from Universal Credit).

  11. 12 April 2021

      Benefit overpayment recovery guide updated to version 2.60.

  12. 26 November 2020

      Added the bullet point 'where the arrears specifically only relate to one or both of the previous two payment periods' to the guide in section 5.50.

  13. 27 August 2020

      Added HTML version of Benefit overpayment recovery guide.

  14. 24 August 2020

      Benefit overpayment recovery guide updated to version 2.50.

  15. 7 July 2020

      Repayments that were temporarily stopped because of coronavirus are starting again.

  16. 9 April 2020

      Benefit overpayment recovery guide updated with explanation that repayments of overpaid benefits have been temporarily stopped because of coronavirus (COVID-19).

  17. 3 April 2020

      Added explanation that repayments of overpaid benefits have been temporarily stopped because of coronavirus (COVID-19).

  18. 27 November 2019

      Updated 'Benefit overpayment recovery guide' to version 2.40 November 2019.

  19. 10 January 2019

      Numerous revisions made to 'Benefit overpayment recovery guide', version 2.30 December 2018.

  20. 23 February 2018

      Published revised 'Benefit overpayment recovery guide', dated February 2018.

  21. 26 May 2017

      Published revised 'Benefit overpayment recovery guide', dated May 2017.

  22. 8 February 2017

      First published.

Documents

Benefit overpayment recovery guide

HTML

Details

This guide is for DWP staff. It explains how overpayments of benefits administered by DWP are recovered, including advances of benefits and hardship payments.

Why we publish this guide

We publish this guide to help people understand how we make decisions.