How is benefit paid?

The payment will normally be made to your tenant straight to their bank or building society account or by cheque. Payment is not normally made to the landlord. If your tenant does not already have a bank or building society account you may want to help them set one up. We have prepared some information on Basic Bank Accounts in the document below. That way they can arrange to pay the rent to you automatically using a standing order:

Basic Bank Accounts document (37kB PDF)

If your tenant is more than 8 weeks in arrears we can pay you without the tenant's agreement. You must have proof of the arrears before we can pay you though.

We will pay you what we would have paid to the tenant. In some cases this will not be the full rent charged. You will have to collect the difference from your tenant.

If you have more than one tenant on direct payment, we will pay the total benefit to you in one cheque or direct transfer BACS payment. We will send you a list informing you whose benefit is included in each payment and the period it covers.

You may be asked to repay any benefit you get for periods after the tenant leaves.

Direct Payments to Landlords

From 7 April 2008 under the new Local Housing Allowance scheme that has been introduced by the Government, when a tenant applies for Housing Benefit, payment may only be made direct to them unless it is considered that the claimant is incapable of managing their financial affairs, is unlikely to pay their rent or has accrued 8 weeks rent arrears.  

We have devised a LHA direct payments safeguard procedure for tenants, landlords and third parties to use to minimise the risk of tenants falling into rent arrears and being put at risk of eviction and to reassure landlords that safeguards are also in place for them. This can be downloaded below.

Payments safeguard procedure document (95kB PDF)

This document also details the procedures that the Benefits Service will follow when making a decision of who Housing Benefit should be made to, how the affected parties will be notified of this decision and what procedures will be used when reviewing a decision.

The Government hopes that paying Housing Benefit to claimants will promote personal responsibility and empower them to budget for themselves; that it will help the unemployed to develop the skills they will need when they move into paid work; and that it will encourage them to open bank accounts and pay their rent by standing order or direct debit, thereby helping to promote financial inclusion.

It is very important that your contact details are kept up-to-date so that we can make you aware of any changes as soon as possible.

More Information for Private Landlords is available on this site regarding how Local Housing Allowance is calculated.

The rates of Local Housing Allowance will be published on our website every month, you can click here to see the current Allowance Rates.

Any direct payment made to a landlord will be paid every 4 weeks in arrears. Payments made to your tenants will be paid every 2 weeks in arrears.

We prefer to make payments direct to your bank account (BACS) and this method of payment can provide many advantages:

• Payment is direct to you and therefore eliminates the possibility of payments being delayed or lost in the post
• The payment is treated as cleared funds allowing you earlier access to the money
• Also saves you time and trouble paying the benefit cheques into your bank account as the payment is now automatically transferred

Furthermore, you will also receive a remittance advice and a statement to confirm that the payment has been transferred, enabling you to monitor the benefit payments being received. Please download the BACS Request Form below and return it to this office:

BACS Request Form (61kB PDF)

Alternatively you can contact us and we will send you a form.

Page last reviewed 7 Apr 2011