If you are a council tenant, your housing benefit is paid directly to your rent account every week.

If your landlord is a housing association, you can choose to have your payments made to you or your landlord.

If you rent from a private landlord and we work out your claim under the local housing allowance (LHA) rules, we will usually pay your housing benefit direct to you, but there are some circumstances when we can pay directly to your landlord.

When Payments Are Made

We will pay you your housing benefit fortnightly, four-weekly or monthly in arrears. Payment will normally be made by BACS (directly into your bank account).

Details of payment dates are available on our Housing Benefit Payment Dates page.

Where payments are made to your landlord payment will be made four-weekly or monthly in arrears.

How Payments Are Made:

Payments are always made by bank transfer (BACS), so we need to know the relevant bank or building society account name, sort code and account number. Each time a payment is made to a landlord they will be able to view your payments online via the Landlord Portal,  showing which tenant the payment is for, the amount and, the period it covers.

If you do not have a bank account, we may pay your housing benefit to your landlord for a short time until you have opened one.

Payment Direct To Landlords

Under local housing allowance (LHA) rules housing benefit will normally be paid to the tenant, but there may be circumstances where we can pay direct to the landlord.

Examples of when we can pay your landlord directly:

• you have a learning disability
• you have an addiction such as drugs, alcohol or gambling
• you have severe debt problems or have been declared bankrupt
• a landlord makes it a condition of your tenancy

These are only examples and we consider each situation based on your situation. If you think you will have problems paying your rent, please contact the benefits team immediately.

Whether you rent privately or from a housing association, if you are more than eight weeks behind in your rent, your landlord can make a request for us to pay your Housing Benefit directly to them.

If you want to request a change in the way you are paid, please complete a change in circumstances form.

The Council will not talk to your landlord about your claim unless you have given written permission to do so – unless you are in arrears with your rent of eight weeks or more. In these circumstances the landlord has the right to ask for direct payments and so the Council would then confirm to your landlord the amount of benefit to which you are entitled.

Any Council Tax Reduction will reduce the amount of council tax you need to pay, and will be shown on your council tax bill. Remember that Council Tax Reduction is a local scheme and is not a benefit payment.