Question

Housing Benefit and Universal Credit (England)

liability for fraud

19 Sep 2016 | 1 comment

If a tenant claims unemployment and housing benefit but is not available for work, eg goes on holiday or has a cash-in-hand job, is the landlord liable for any payments made by Department of Work and Pensions or Housing Benefit?

Answer

1 Comment

  1. guildy

    As long as the landlord doesn’t know nor has caused the overpayment then no, it cannot be recovered from the landlord.

    You should ensure therefore that you know nothing!

    Please see this article about regulation 101 which governs recovery of an overpayment.

    It is worth noting that even when recovered from the tenant, often the landlord is affected because the amount the landlord receives is less. However, this is still a recovery from the tenant and so lawful.

Submit a Comment

View your previously asked questions. (Will only show questions from August 2020)

(Link above back to topic only works for questions added after end of August 2020)