Council repays more than £330,000 after social housing tenants overpaid rent for years

The error was discovered in a 2024 audit.

A report prepared for a meeting of Mid Devon’s Cabinet on 4 August said refunds already made had resolved the cases of 402 tenants with a total value of £330,210. This includes £13,775 in compensation.

According to a report from the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the council is relying on legal advice for its decision to refund only six years' worth of over-payments, although the issue is understood to date back to 2002.

The report to Cabinet noted that under charges are not being recovered.

It added: “Refunding is complex because some tenants also receive Housing Benefit (HB), Universal Credit (UC), or both. UC rent element cases are outside the Council’s control, and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has not yet confirmed how it wishes these cases to be treated. Cases where no benefit was paid have been prioritised.

“To date, 402 refunds have been issued to tenants, with a total value of £330,210; this includes £13,775 in compensation. The total also includes cases where HB has been corrected and the remaining balance refunded; some refunds have been credited to rent accounts. The team continues to work through former tenant cases, and refunds already made are included in the figures above.”

Responding to a question at the 4 August Cabinet meeting, Deputy Chief Executive and Section 151 officer Andrew Jarrett said that despite “regularly chasing” the Department for Work and Pensions for confirmation of what its preferred remedy is, the DWP still “can't confirm when they are going to let us know.”

Jarrett also stated that while still being unaware of the full extent of what monies the council will be asked to refund, the council has prepared to repay the cost of “the full six years as legally prescribed” to the DWP if that is what the body determines is necessary.

The Section 151 officer confirmed that the council has dealt with all of the refunds that are “within its own gift, and did that some time ago now”, leaving only the DWP repayments outstanding from Mid Devon’s efforts to remedy the rent calculator error.

Harry Rodd