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Direct payments and safeguards

When will the Benefit Section make payments to the landlord?

We must usually pay the housing benefit to your landlord if you are eight weeks or more in arrears with your rent.

Payment may also be made direct to the landlord where we decide that you are:

likely to have difficulty in managing your financial affairs
unlikely to pay your rent

We recognise that receiving payments of LHA will not be appropriate for every tenant. Therefore we have a safeguard policy. The aim of this policy is to ensure that safeguards are in place to help prevent rent arrears and tenants losing their homes.

The policy intends to provide assurances to landlords that their rent will be paid if they have vulnerable tenants.

The Benefits Service will make reasonable, fair and consistent decisions in a timely manner. Each case will be considered individually and no assumptions made about people's circumstances.

Who can ask for the payments to be made to the landlord?

Tenants, landlords, tenants' families or persons acting on the tenants' behalf may tell the Benefit Section that they are having difficulty paying their rent, or are likely to. We may also identify tenants who may have difficulty managing their money; for example, when we are carrying out home visits.

You can request that payments are made to your landlord using an application for direct payment form. Please contact us if you think you need one, or you can download the form.

Who may have difficulty paying their rent?

There are many reasons why someone may have difficulty paying their rent. They might be someone who:

has severe debt problems
has a recent County Court judgement against them
is an undischarged bankrupt
is unable to open a bank or building society account
has some of their Income Support or Jobseeker's Allowance paid direct to the gas, electricity or water company by the Department for Work and Pensions
is getting Supporting People help
is getting help from a homeless charity.

Or someone may have difficulty paying their rent if they:

have learning difficulties
have an illness that stops them managing on a day-to-day basis
cannot read English
cannot speak English
are addicted to drugs, alcohol or gambling
are fleeing domestic violence
are a care leaver
are leaving prison
are homeless

Who decides if we may pay the landlord?

We decide if we may pay the landlord.

There may be times when housing benefit staff know someone has difficulty in managing their money and may take action based on this knowledge.

We must have evidence to show that a person has difficulty managing their money and that it is in their interest that we pay the landlord directly. Evidence should usually be in writing. People who can provide evidence include:

the tenant
friends and family of the tenant
the landlord
welfare groups (including money advisers)
social services
probation officers
Jobcentre Plus
The Pension Service
homeless charities/organisations
Supporting People teams
local/council rent deposit scheme administrators, homelessness or housing advisers

Making a decision

Once we have collected all the relevant evidence, we will decide as quickly as possible if we should make direct payments to the landlord. We will write to you and explain our decision. We will also write to your landlord.

Reviews and appeals

If you or your landlord disagree with our decision you can ask us to look at the decision again. This is called a review or you can appeal against the decision, giving reasons why you think the decision is wrong.