Overpayment of benefit

When a client has been overpaid benefit and the resulting debt will be recovered by MSD, the client's Income Related Rent will be reviewed based on their circumstances over the period that the benefit debt has been established for.

The process for reviewing the rate of Income Related Rent once a benefit overpayment has been established involves:

• checking if the client's circumstances over the period the overpayment was incurred has affected their assessable income, additional occupant contributions and/or household type
• calculating the rate of Income Related Rent over the period the overpayment was incurred
• establishing an Income Related Rent debt or refund as appropriate
• calculating the client's current rate of Income Related Rent as appropriate

Note a client's current rate of Income Related Rent may not change as a result of a benefit overpayment.

If a benefit has been overpaid and a debt established which is to be recovered by MSD, the amount of benefit income used when reviewing the Income Related Rent for that period will be the assessed rate of benefit:

• after entitlement has been reviewed for the period the overpayment was incurred and
• after any income reduction and
• before any deductions are made, deductions for court fines or Crown debt

Any amount of benefit established as an overpayment and to be recovered by MSD should not be included when reviewing Income Related Rent over the period the benefit overpayment was incurred.

For more information see:

When reviewing a client's current rate of Income Related Rent, the amount of benefit included as income will be the benefit payable:

• after any income reduction and
• before any deductions are made, such as failure to assist for Child Support, or deductions for court fines or Crown debt

Note when the benefit overpayment is established due to fraud, the Income Related Rent debt or refund is established by Client Service Integrity.

The Centralised Unit Housing will review the current rate of Income Related Rent.