How Automation Tackles Housing Benefit Overpayment Invoices

From time to time, Housing Associations receive Housing Benefit (HB) overpayment invoices from the local authority, requesting repayment of funds that were previously overpaid to some tenants, often due to changes in their circumstances. Although these invoices often involve only small amounts, they require significant manual effort to process.

Typically, income officers review the details of these invoices to determine whether the overpayment is valid and what action is needed. This process can be repetitive and time-consuming, diverting income officers from more valuable tasks — especially as these invoices tend to be low in value but frequent in volume.

Solution Design

This process could be largely automated with a dedicated UiPath robot, which could be configured to perform activities such as :

• Read and extract relevant information from incoming HB invoices.

• Cross-check details to assess whether the overpayment appears valid.

• Present a summary to an income officer, highlighting any gaps or uncertainties.

  
  

A rules-based system can also be added. For example:

• If the invoice amount exceeds a certain threshold, the case is flagged for manual review.

• If the amount is below the threshold and no issues are found, the robot can prepare it for payment or further action automatically.

• If the robot cannot validate an invoice due to missing information, it could automatically draft a response letter to the local authority to appeal or request clarification.

  
  

By automating this process, we aim to free up income officers’ time for higher-value work while ensuring overpayments are handled efficiently and accurately.

Other Housing Benefit letters, such as entitlement reviews, decision notices, suspensions, awards etc can be categorised and data extracted for onward processing in housing management and assigned in document repository systems.

If you’d like to learn more about how automation can streamline processes and free up valuable time for your teams, contact us today — we’re ready to help you get started.