Housing Benefit and Council Tax Support

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How is Housing Benefit and Council Tax support paid?

How is Housing Benefit and Council Tax Support Paid?

Housing benefit is only paid by BACS. If you do not have a bank account, information about basic accounts is available here to download.

Housing Benefit is usually paid direct to the tenant but can be paid to a landlord directly in certain circumstances which include:

  • If the landlord is a registered social landlord or housing association
  • If the tenant is more than 8 weeks in arrears
  • If the tenant has a history of rent arrears
  • If the tenant is vulnerable or unable to manage their financial affairs
  • If the tenant is unlikely to pay their rent, either through an inability to manage financial affairs, substance dependency or disability.

If you wish to have payments made directly to your landlord, or you are a landlord who would like to apply for direct payments, please contact us. We may require further information or evidence to support your application but this will depend on the circumstances.

If we have received information about 8 weeks or more rent arrears, we will normally suspend the Housing Benefit payments to gather further information from the landlord and or tenant.

Council Tax support is only paid directly to your Council tax account.