FOI request (FOI229313)

Housing Benefit

Requested Fri 22 December 2017
Responded  Fri 22 December 2017

For the last two tax years please provide the following information 

A Whats was the total amount paid out in housing benefit to private sector landlords

B What was the total amount paid out in housing benefit to social housing providers

C What was the total amount of overpayments to

(A)  Private Sector Landlords and (B) Social Housing Providers

From the total amount of over payments to both social and private sector housing providers how much has (A) been and collected and (B) outstanding and (C )Written off

I would prefer to receive this information electronically, preferably as a data set e.g. in Excel, NOT as a PDF.

If it is not possible to provide the information requested due to the information exceeding the cost of compliance limits identified in Section 12, please provide advice and assistance, under your Section 16 obligations, as to how I can refine my request to be included in the scope of the Act.

Response

A -

15/16 £12,133,560

16/17 £10,679,695

B -

15/16 £19,103,661

16/17 £19,534,799

C(A) and (B).

Hastings Borough Council does not have this information readily available. Would require an extensive manual exercise as we have overpayments totalling £2.4million

In respect of C (A) and (B) there is no easy way to obtain this information. Housing Benefit overpayments regularly move between the Benefits system and our Sundry Debtors system depending on the customer's circumstances. With changes to legislation over the last few years, the number of overpayments recovered from landlords has reduced significantly as more customers are being paid direct.