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This page is designed to help private landlords understand the main rules which affect any tenants they have who are claiming Housing Benefit. It also gives information about how Housing Benefit affects a landlord directly.
Housing Benefit gives help towards housing costs for people on low income. For example, people receiving Income Support, Jobseeker’s Allowance, Pension Credit, or working but on a low wage.
The person who makes the claim must be liable or must be the partner of the person who is liable to make payments in respect of the dwelling that they occupy as their home.
If the person is also claiming Income Support, Jobseeker’s Allowance, Incapacity Benefit or Pension Credit, they can claim Housing Benefit at the same time. This is usually done by telephone through Jobcentre Plus or The Pension Service. The information needed to assess Housing Benefit is collected by them and passed on to the council so that Housing Benefit can be assessed. To make a claim in this way a person should telephone:
For Income Support, Jobseeker’s Allowance or Incapacity Benefit.
0800 0556688
For Pension Credit.
0800 991234
If the person is not also making a claim for Income Support, Jobseeker’s Allowance, Incapacity Benefit or Pension Credit, then they should make a claim direct to the council. This is done on an application form which can be obtained by telephoning our Customer Services on 0115 9013828, calling in at one of our offices or downloading a form from our web-site.
Select to download a claim form for Housing Benefit or Council Tax Benefit.
It is important that they make their claim for Housing Benefit straight away as any delay could result in loss of benefit. Where possible they should send the information requested on the claim form to us with the form, but if any of the information is unavailable at the time, they should send their form to ourselves straight away and state on the form when the information will be provided.
The Tenancy Agreement may not provide all of the information that we need and we may require additional information as requested on the form.
It would help us to speed up the process of dealing with the claim if the landlord could ensure that the proof of rent includes the following information:
Housing Benefit may not cover the full rent that has been agreed with a tenant. The Rent Service, which is independent of the Council, will advise us of the maximum rent that can be used to work out their entitlement to Housing Benefit.
Housing Benefit does not cover the cost of certain service charges which may be included in the rent, for example water charges, personal fuel charges and meals. Housing Benefit may be reduced further if:
From 7th April 2008 there will be a big change to the way we work out Housing Benefit for private tenants. This will only affect new claims received on or after the 7th April 2008. For further information about Local Housing Allowance
Housing Benefit will normally be paid from the Monday after the claim form is received. However, if the claim form is received in the same week as the tenancy started, we can pay Housing Benefit from the Monday of that week if the rent is contracted on a weekly basis.
Housing Benefit cannot normally be paid for a period before the person moves into the property even where they have a liability to pay rent before they move in.
However, in certain circumstances, a claimant can be treated as occupying a property for up to 4 weeks before they moved in, for example, if the delay in moving is necessary to adapt the new home to meet the disablement needs of the claimant or a member of the family. They may need to contact us for advice if they are unsure if they can get benefit before they move into the property.
The tenant can ask for their Housing Benefit claim to be backdated for up to 52 weeks from the date they make their request in writing. They must be able to show “Good Cause” as to why they did not apply for benefit earlier and that Good Cause must apply throughout the period they have requested backdated benefit for until they put their request for backdated benefit in writing.
They can apply backdated benefit on the Housing Benefit claim form.
Housing Benefit payments can either be paid to the tenant or direct to their landlord where benefit in payment prior to the 7th April 2008.
From 7th April 2008 any new housing benefit payments will be made directly to the tenant in most cases. Payments cannot normally be made to the landlord, except in a small number of cases. The policy document gives more information regarding
Before we pay a landlord directly we have to be satisfied that the landlord is a “fit and proper person”. We do this by considering whether the landlord:
The landlord can ask us to pay Housing Benefit directly to them where the tenant has rent arrears of 8 weeks or more. They will need to complete the 8 weeks in arrears application. We will then suspend further Housing Benefit payments and write to the tenant and ask them for their comments. We will advise the tenant and landlord of our decision once we have all the facts available to us.
Housing Benefit is paid for as long as the tenant remains entitled. It will be necessary for us to check details of their claim from time to time and we will contact them at the appropriate time or arrange to visit them.
It is important to understand that the person claiming Housing Benefit is responsible for providing the information we need to deal with their claim and also for contacting us about their claim.
We are unable to discuss Housing Benefit claims with a landlord unless we have the tenant’s written consent to do so. They are required to sign the declaration on the application form if they wish us to discuss their claim with their landlord.
However, if Housing Benefit is paid or will be paid directly to the landlord we can give them certain information about the claim without their consent. The information we can give a landlord in these circumstances is as follows:
Where payments of Housing Benefit are made to the landlord we will send a notification letter which will advise:
Where a landlord receives direct payments of Housing Benefit, they must let us know immediately if they are aware of any changes in the circumstances of any tenants who they know receive Housing Benefit.
For example if the tenant moves out of the property even if they are still liable for the rent at the property. We expect the landlord to make regular checks to confirm that the tenant is still living at the property where they are receiving Housing Benefit payments. We would also expect the landlord to keep accurate and up to date records of the rent being paid by their tenants in case they get in to arrears and have to ask for direct payments.
An overpayment is benefit that has been paid but to which there is no entitlement. Overpayments happen for a number of reasons and most are recoverable. They are usually recovered from the claimant but when benefit was paid direct to the landlord, they may be recovered from them. This could happen if we felt it was reasonable for the landlord to have known they were being overpaid. For example, where a tenant moves out of a property and we were not informed.
If a landlord does not agree with our decision to seek recovery from them they can ask us to look at our decision again. Details are provided on the overpayment notification letter that is sent to the landlord. It is important that the landlord writes to us within one calendar month of the date of the notification if they do not agree with our decision.
Sometimes, overpayments are recovered from tenant’s by making deductions from their ongoing benefit payments. If these payments are being made direct to a landlord the tenant will have to make up the shortfall between the benefit paid and the rent.
Although in most cases we can’t talk to a landlord about their tenants, we will always try to help where a tenant has rent arrears or where a landlord is considering taking legal action including eviction. Please contact us before taking enforcement action in case we are able to help. The direct payment application form should be completed by the tenant where they are unable to manage paying their rent.
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